Harry Potter and the Newest Beginnings
by S. J. Iolanthe
Summary: Harry's story may be over, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the story, there will always be evil in the world to balance the good. This is where the Newest heroes Begin their journey, and the Oldest evils are Reborn. Main characters are Albus, Scorpius, Rose & James, but almost all Next Gen characters will be involved in some part, and a lot of original series characters too.
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: I claim no ownership of Harry Potter, nor any of it's characters, themes, plots, etc...**

**I do however own this original story, as well as all of its original characters.**

**Some aspects of this story are of shared ownership, between myself and HolyHeraHazel.**

* * *

It had been a quiet day in Godrics Hollow, and now the twilight moon was shining through the pale pink sky. The streets were all but deserted, and the streetlamps were just starting to flicker into life. Outside one particular house a striped orange tabby cat stood sentry atop a small set of stairs, its yellow eyes reflecting the light from the streetlamps as it watched the empty streets.

The silence is broken by a large crack, like the thunder before the skies break open. The sound swallows the quiet noises of the neighborhood, echoing and reverberating off of every surface it touches. The cat turns its head reflexively in the direction of the noise, staring unblinkingly at the man who has appeared out of thin air in front of the house she is guarding. The man hastily stuffs a cherry wand into the folds of his navy robes, he darts his eyes around the street making sure no one has seen him, then makes his way toward the aged red brick house. He gives a curt nod to the cat and raps three times on the heavy door.

Half a second later the door swings open, revealing a kind faced woman with fiery red hair and light brown eyes. "Hey Neville." She says with a smile wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "It's been awhile, how are things with Hannah?"

"Oh, uh things are great. Listen is-" but he was cut off.

"What about the girls?" Ginny asked.

"They're fine. Listen is-" but again he was cut short.

"Is Alice excited for her first year at Hogwarts?" Ginny continued.

"_Listen_!" Neville said much louder this time. "Is Harry home? I need to talk with him its urgent." Neville finally said.

"Neville what's wrong? I haven't seen you so stressed since we were Hogwarts." She says in a worried motherly tone which she often used when talking about James.

"No it's nothing really just..." He took a breath. "Is he home?" He asked again this time in a more calm and controlled voice.

"Uh..." Ginny hesitated, apparently some of Neville's stress had rub off on her. "Yeah he's in the basement, doing some paperwork I think."

"Thanks." Said Neville as he brushed past her, almost tripping over his own two feet.

Ginny stood alone now in the open doorway, worrying about Neville. He had never been short with her in the past, Neville had always been one of her best friends, whatever it is it must be serious.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, noticing the orange tabby that was sitting on her porch. "Eavesdropping I suppose."

A moment later the cat had morphed into a man in a heavily worn brown trench coat, with fiery red hair like hers, but his was beginning to thin on the top. "For your information," the man began, "I'm keeping your family safe while, your husband," he gave a shudder at the word, "finishes the paperwork. After that we've got to head back to the Ministry."

"Honestly Ron." She scoffed.

There was a brief moment of silence before Ron said, "What do you think's up with Neville?"

"I don't know." Ginny said in a measured voice. "And that's what scares me."

At that precise moment there was another thunderous crack, and Harry Potter appeared before them. His hair stood off in all directions, and his piercing green eyes looked soft behind is thin framed glasses, and the lightning bolt scar on his forehead was just as prominent as ever. His golden Auror badge flashed briefly from beneath his immaculate brown trenchcoat. "Here Ron," he said in his soft baritone voice, as he handed Ron the rolled up parchments he was carrying. "Take these to Anastasia."

"Ugh." Ron groaned. "You know I hate her."

"Ron without her to take care the paperwork I'd be stuck in that stuffy office all day, and you'd have her as a partner." He scolded. "Now deliver these parchments to Anastasia." Ron still didn't move. "That's an order."

With a grunt, a snatch and a pop, Ron had gone.

"Harry what's wrong with-" Ginny began but Harry was already answering her question.

"I don't know. But it's not good." He said then he popped out of sight too.

* * *

"Harry!" Neville called as he bustled down the stairs. "Harry!" He called again.

When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs he saw Harry at the far end of the room bent over a large desk with a quill in his hand. "Harry I-" but again Neville was cut off.

"Shh." Harry said without looking up. He made a gesture with his free hand to a pair of empty chairs next to a glass table. "One minute Neville."

"Harry I-"

"One minute." He said again in a stern but conversational tone. He rolled up the two scrolls of parchment and disappeared with a pop. Exactly sixty seconds later there was another pop, Harry was standing a few feet away of Neville now, sitting down - without looking - at the chair he had apparated in front of. "What the matter Neville." He said in the soft voice everyone who knew him from Hogwarts knew so well.

Neville looked like a mess now, he had cold sweats and could hardly speak without stuttering. Harry whipped out his wand and pointed at a shelf of glass bottles, making a large bottle of brown liquid and two cups float towards them, landing softly on the glass table between them. "Drink." He said as he poured the liquid into a glass and handed it to Neville.

"What is it?" Neville asked. "A Calming Draught?"

"Firewhiskey." Harry said. "But I have Calming Draught too if you prefer."

"No," said Neville, "this will be fine." He lifted the glass to his lips and drank it all in one large gulp. It burned his throat on the way down but a moment later Neville felt the warmth of the firewhiskey spread throughout his body calming him more than any Calming Draught ever could have done.

"It's Alice." Neville said. He had expected Harry to be shocked, or to at least react in some way, but he only continued to stare intently at him. Neville was used to this side of Harry of course, they had been Aurors together for five years before Neville resigned. "She... She... Well to tell you the truth I don't know what's happened to her."

"Did you take her to St. Mungo's?" Harry asked, he knew it would be hard for Neville to think about another family member in St. Mungo's, but he also knew that Neville was a strong enough man to hear it.

"No it's nothing like that it's just. Well... I think she's had a vision." This time Harry reacted, his eyes opened a little wider and his jaw dropped slightly, not things anyone who hadn't worked side by side with him for years would have noticed. There have been no seers in my family or Hannah's, and all the books I've read say that the 'sight' is passed down through the bloodlines. So it can't be a vision right?"

"Why don't you tell me what happened?" Harry said as he said his own untouched glass of firewhiskey back on the table.

"Alright." Neville said then paused to take a breath. "It was a little before midnight, Hannah and I were up talking about Alice's first day at Hogwarts, and telling each other about our own first days for the millionth time. I had just gotten to the part about my frog trevor getting lost and she was laughing, at first we didn't hear it, a low drone from the next room. But then there was a scream and we could hear a voice neither of us recognized. We ran into the girls' room and Alice was sitting bolt upright in her bed, her pupils were so large they nearly covered her whole eyes and she was speaking in that deep voice." Neville started to cry now, he could only speak between sobs. "I was so scared Harry... My little girl... I didn't know what was wrong... I couldn't help her..." He took a moment to gather himself before he continued.

"Hannah was terrified, she was sitting with Augusta in her bed, stroking her hair and rocking her gently. They were both crying so hard, neither of them knew what was going on." He took another pause. "I didn't catch all of it, and thankfully Alice doesn't remember anything, but here's what I did hear." He said handing Harry a small rolled parchment.

_... to welcome the one spared from death_

_A storm will come from the shore of the sea,_

_Young curiosity will set it free,_

_And a most ancient evil shall rise anew_

_Sending the world as it's known askew_

_Out of the shadows a hero shall rise_

_To save or cause the world's demise_

_The choice to fight for the good or the bad_

_But it shall not bring back things once had_

_When forces of good and evil collides_

_It all rests on what our young hero decides_

_He must go to a place well known to him,_

_And help to fight the darkness from within_

_But is it worth his blood and his tears?_

_Can he conquer his bitter fears?_

"What do you think it means?" Neville asked when Harry put the parchment down on the table.

"I'm not sure." Harry said slowly.

"You don't think it means You-Know-Who is coming back do you?" Neville asked, in the small frightened voice that Harry had not heard since their school days.

"I don't think so Neville. Voldemort was never that ancient, plus he's dead and you can't come back from the dead." Harry said each word very deliberately, so that Neville would be more inclined to believe him.

"But you can be brought back as an Inferi." Neville pointed out.

"Yes, but that's not really living is it. An Inferi is just a shell of a person, possessed by magic. Like a giant puppet, doing whatever the creator tells it to do." Harry had dealt with Inferi on several occasions, and even tried the curse himself once - just to better understand the mechanics of the spell.

Neville gave a grunt of acknowledgement, signalling that, at the very least, he had heard Harry.

"Are you sure You-Know-" Neville was cut off.

"Neville, he's been dead for nineteen years, don't you think it's okay to the his name now?" Harry said harshly. Neville was one of the bravest people Harry knew, and in the past whenever they had spoken about Voldemort, Neville had always used the name freely, but something about the idea the prophecy had scared all the brave out of Neville.

"Alright fine." Neville said solemnly. "Are you sure, _Voldemort_," he whispered the name, "is dead?"

Harry began to speak, but quickly stopped himself. He took a moment to look Neville in the eye, it was plain to see Neville was terrified, but Harry thought for a moment that if this had happened to Lily he would be shaken up as well.

"Neville," Harry began, the soothing tone of his voice ushering away the tension and anxiety. "Voldemort is not coming back. I killed him, I saw ..." Harry paused as a shiver of cold crept down his spine. "I saw the shriveled piece of his soul dying. Trust me Neville, he's gone."

"What do you mean you saw his soul die? You never told any of us about it before."

"No." Harry admitted. "I thought it better no one know, or else you'd all think I'd gone mad." Harry sighed and took a sip of his firewhiskey.

"When Voldemort killed me, or, when he killed the part of himself that lived inside me - I'm still not entirely sure what happened - I woke up, or, it wasn't so much waking up, as I just, was, in this place.

"At first I wasn't sure if it was real. I wasn't sure if I was real, but as I drifted between conscience and unconsciousness, I suddenly became aware that I was lying on something, and in order to lay on something I must have a body, and if I have a body and a conscience mind, I must be real.

"That was a surreal moment. Slowly piecing my reality together, like an immensely difficult jigsaw puzzle.

"Once I realized that I was conscience, I realized that I was naked, but somehow I knew that I was alone, so it didn't bother me. Once I realized I could feel, I wondered if I could see. I opened my eyes and... I don't know how to describe it, It was like seeing for the first time, but at the exact same moment realizing that I had eyes. Everything was white and cloudy, like my surroundings were being formed as I looked at them.

"I sat up then. I wasn't wearing my glasses, yet I could see fine - though there wasn't much to be seen. The next part still haunts me sometimes. There was a soft thumping and a pitiful, almost tortured whine. I wasn't scared, just... I don't know how to put it exactly. I felt uncomfortable, and I really wanted to be wearing clothes. I'd barely formed the thought in my head when a set of robes appeared in front of me. For some reason I didn't question how they'd simply materialized out of nothing, I just put them on.

"I stood then, and I looked around. I still had no idea where I was, and for a moment I thought I was in the Room of Requirement. As I looked around the room I sound the thing that was making all the noise, it was horrifying. It appeared to be a small, naked child, brittle and bony, with rough, raw skin, struggling to breath. It was curled up under a small bench, like luggage someone had forgotten. I was terrified of it, even though it was small, even though it was weak, even though it was dying, I was terrified. Looking back now I think it was an instinctual fear, like somehow I knew what this thing was, and the very thought of it was enough to set me on edge. Scared though I was I walked towards it, soon I was within an arm's length of it, I thought I should try to help it somehow, but I could not bring myself to touch it.

"Then Dumbledore was suddenly there, and he told me that I couldn't help it. That was at once one of the happiest and saddest moments of my life. Dumbledore was here again, half moon spectacles and all, and as soon as I see him I begin to remember everything that happened, the horcruxes, the battle and even my own death, flood back into my conscience mind." Harry sighed, then took a long pause.

"But Dumbledore's dead. You can't be brought back from the dead, so if you're seeing him does that mean you died too?" Neville asked nervously.

"That was what I asked Dumbledore, he said 'On the whole, dear boy, I think not,' " Harry gave a small chuckle but he was not entirely sure why he had. There was a long silence after that, as both men thought of Dumbledore. Neville remembered him as the kind, albeit sometimes mad Headmaster of Hogwarts, but Harry remembered him as a man like any other man. A man who made foolish mistakes, a man who spent his whole adult life running from his past, and a man who'd always offer you a lemon candy. Harry smiled.

"That's what that thing was underneath the bench," Harry said, breaking the silence, "it was the part of Voldemort's soul that he had killed."

"He's dead Neville." Harry breathed. "Besides, I don't think you have to worry. Most prophecies don't come true."

"But your's did." Neville pointed out.

"Yes," admitted Harry. "Have you ever heard the prophecy Neville?"

Neville shook his head.

Harry cleared his throat and began to recite the prophecy, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

There was a silence afterwards in which Neville stared, unblinking, at Harry, he had completely missed the point.

"Don't you see? The prophecy could have meant either one of us, and it's only because Voldemort acted on the prophecy that it became true at all. Each part of a prophecy has variables, indeterminate values that you can't know unless you act or omit action. By itself a prophecy is just a cluster of words, it only becomes true if we chose to make it true." Harry looked at Neville and smiled. "It's all about our actions and, more importantly, our_ choices_."

Neville smiled then for the first time since he'd arrived.

"My advice," Harry said, "forget about it. You and Hannah were the only ones to hear the prophecy, am I right?"

Neville nodded.

"Good." Harry sighed. "Only those you hear the prophecy first hand, or are involved in its foretellings, can speak it out loud. So please, forget about it, and for the love of god,_ burn that parchment_."

* * *

**_Author's Note:_**

**_Thank you all for reading and please be sure to leave your review, good or bad it all helps._**

**_Firstly, I have tried to keep the story as canonical as I possibly could so there is very little AU (Alternate Universe) material. Things that are AU are things like the Hogwarts staff (since very little information is known about the 2017-2018 Hogwarts staff, you will see some characters that you recognize, and some that are in a new position but the spirit of the Hogwarts staff is the same as it has always been), I've also added some characters of my own creation which also make the story - just a little bit - AU. But besides that it's all as close to the canon as I could make it._**

**_Secondly, while this story is rated T use your own personal discretion because some scenes do get kind of... dark. Not to give anything away but I would say 14+ is a good age for this fic, but again, use your own discretion._**

**_Thirdly, this story is planned for 3 parts (much like this Author's Note), but things are subject to change, depending on your interest and mine. So leave those reviews, follow and favorite this story, if you want it to keep going. Anyway, I plan to write 1 maybe 2 chapters a month (as I do have a life outside of this - admittedly not much, this story is starting to consume everything I do) but like I said before things are subject to change._**

**_Now that we're through with the formalities, I'll be seeing you soon in chapter 1._**


	2. Albus

**Glad to see you've decided to continue reading, please enjoy this joke.**

**"What's the fastest way to get to Gringotts?"**

**"Diagon Alley." **

* * *

Albus looked up at his father with great confusion, he did not understand why they had stopped in front of a brick wall. His Father only laughed as he pulled out his wand, "Three up, and two across." He muttered and tapped a brick three times. The brick quivered and wiggled, and small hole appeared in the wall, then it grew wider as more bricks quivered away, then suddenly they weren't standing in front of a brick wall, but a glorious stone archway. It led out onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned right out of sight.

"Welcome," Harry said, "to Diagon Alley."

"I've been here before dad." said Albus.

"Yeah I know but... I don't know. I wanted this to be special, like it was for me the first time I came here. I'm sorry." He said looking crestfallen. He looked down at his son, it was like looking into a mirror and seeing yourself twenty five years younger. Albus had his father's green eyes and evidentially his father's sight too, he wore glasses just like one's his father used to wear. Besides his bare forehead and his well combed hair, they could have been twins.

"Do you have your list with you?"

Albus groped in the pockets of his robes looking for the rolled up piece of parchment. "Yup." He said as he unrolled it.

Hogwarts School

_of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ Wizardry

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spell (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand and One Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Arts and the Best Ways to Protect Yourself by Harry Potter

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

"Do we really have to buy _your_ book?" asked Albus.

"Why? Would you rather we steal it? Or do you just not want to take Defence Against the Dark Arts?" Harry joked.

"No, I just meant..." Albus stumbled his words trying to defend his point. "It's your book, shouldn't they just give it to you?"

"No we'll be buying my book to." Harry smiled. "Now lets try to get this finished before your mom, James and Lily show up."

And so they hurried off down the cobbled street to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, where Albus was fitted for robes by the crooning old woman. Next they went just next door, to the bookstore Flourish and Blott's, where they picked up a copy of every book on Albus' list including the book his father had written. With a pile of books in their arms - Albus' mother had the family's mokeskin pouch - they headed towards the apothecary at the far end of Diagon Alley.

Albus was having trouble seeing over his stack of books, and tripped over his own feet, and his books to fly into the air. Then in one fluid movement so fast Albus thought if he had blinked he would have missed it, his father threw up his own books, caught Albus with his left arm, and with his right he cast a wordless spell on the books that caused them to stay frozen in midair. Albus was stunned and hardly realized he had said, "Why didn't you just do that from the start?"

His father only laughed as he set Albus back on his feet and started collecting the books out of the air. "Because I didn't want you to feel left out." He said with a smile, as he passed Albus a smaller stack of books.

When they were through with the Apothecary they were burdened with so much, that the two of them could not possibly hope to carry it all themselves, and without Albus even needing to ask, his Father floated the books out of his hands and they walked beside their levitating purchases toward two large store with giant colourful signs, the first in bright silver read _Eeylop's Owl Emporium_ beneath a large horned owl in flight, the second in deep scarlet said _Magical Menagerie_ overtop a black cat with piercing yellow eyes. There was a symphony of hoots and other animals sounds over taking the low mumbling of voices as they walked closer to the stores.

"What about a pet?" His father asked.

"Yeah!" Albums responded excitedly, he'd completely forgotten they could take a pet to Hogwarts.

"An owl?"

"No," Albus responded. "We've already got Echo, and James has Stargazer, I think I want something different."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure." Albus said as he pushed open the door of the Magical Menagerie.

Inside the shop there were cats and toads, rats and rabbits, kneazles and snails, and one very large jewel encrusted tortoise. "Wow." Albus said as he spun around trying to look at everything at once. By accident he bumped into a small girl and her not-very-small-at-all mother. The girl was holding a white rabbit but when Albus bumped into her it had transformed into a small robin and flown onto Albus' head. The small girl giggled as she stretched out her hand or the bird, and when she again held it firmly in her hands it turned back into a rabbit.

"Transforming Rabbits." Said a tall thin woman behind Albus. "We breed some of the finest in the world here. Are you interested in buying one?"

Albus thought for a second before deciding, "No." He said, and the saleswoman didn't miss a beat as she ushered him toward a large glass tank full of snails in every color all with bright orange shells striped with black. Where normal snails would create of trail of slime, these were creating trails of fire.

"Poisonous Namibian Fire Snails, all the way from Africa." She said eagerly.

"Why would I want one of those, kinda dangerous aren't they?" Albus asked.

"Well then how about a Fire Crab." She said as she put a slender bony hand onto the back of the jewel encrusted tortoise.

"That's not a crab," said Albus almost laughing. "Its a tortoise."

"No its a Fire Crab, they're very intelligent creatures, and they live to be very old, this one is one hundred and fifty and he's still just a baby. But if they feel threatened they can shoot fire from their backside."

Albus bent down low to examine the fire crab, "He doesn't do much does he?"

The saleswoman gave a small grunt, and from over her shoulder Albus saw a small, snake like animal, but it had fur, and no tail. "What's that?" He asked the woman.

"Oh that? Its just a ferret, nothing magical about it, someone just dropped it off here a month ago, said she didn't want him anymore. He's kinda vicious, always bites us when we feed him or change his papers." While the woman was talking Albus had already made his way over to the cage and stared at the ferret. He held his hand up the the cage, the ferret sniffed at his finger then ran around excitedly in a circle. Albus open the door to the cage.

"Hey kid you don't want to do that!" The saleswoman shouted but the ferret had already run out of the cage and down Albus' arm underneath his robes. He laughed as the ferret ran over his shoulders and down his front, finally coming out through his left pant leg. It scurried off across the floor to the saleswoman, she stooped to pick him up but he'd already ran back up the leg of Albus' trousers and was now sitting on his right shoulder. The saleswoman took a step forward but instantly tripped, her shoelaces had been tied together.

Albus turned laughing to his father who was helping the woman to her feet. "Can we get him dad? Please?"

"I guess so." He responded. and took several coins out of his pocket and passed them to the saleswoman who had cast a spell on her shoelaces which were now tied in two perfect bows. "So what are we gonna call him?"

It was the first word that came to Albus' mind, but it was the perfect name, "Mischief."

* * *

With his new pet ferret safely in its cage, and the cage in his father's hand, with the rest of their purchases floating beside them, they walked to the end of the cobble street toward a small shop that looked like it was being squashed between the much larger buildings on either side of it. Over the door, there was a dingy green sign that spelled out in. peeling gold letters, _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C._

Albus hurried ahead of his father and pushed open the door. Inside the store was just as small as it looked from the outside, everything was covered in a layer of dust, the room was bare except for a signal solitary chair in a corner of the room and several shelves that were all packed full to bursting with narrow boxes containing in each one, a wand. Albus was so excited that he did not hear his father come in behind him and was startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "This is where I got my wand you know." He said with a smile.

"Mr. Potter? Is that you?" Came the shaking voice of a very aged man. He came walking down the isle of one of the shelves favouring his left leg heaving. His eyes had lost most of their natural colour and were now a pale gray, and what little hair he still had was wispy and unkempt.

"It is Mr. Ollivander." His father called into the empty room.

"Why it was only yesterday you were in here with your first son. He looked just like his grandfather you know. But this one, if he only had your scar upon his forehead, I would swear that he was Harry Potter." He smiled with a look of fond nostalgia. "Here for a wand then are we?" He was looking at Albus now.

"Um... Yeah." Albus sputtered.

"Right then," he nodded and reached inside pocket, "hold out your arm." He pulled out a tape measure, that began to take Albus' measurements by itself. Hand to ground, shoulder to fingertips, shoulder to wrist and shoulder to elbow, and even whipped in front of his nose once.

"This one," said Mr. Ollivander who had evidently already retrieved a wand from one of the shelves, "is very similar to your brother's. Yew and Dragon Heartstring, 10 and a half inches, a bit shorter than his though." He thrust the wand box in front of Albus. "Well go on, give it a wave."

Albus picked up the wand and waved it through the air and sent the box flying from Mr. Ollivander's hands. "Not bad." Mr. Ollivander said taking back the wand and fetching another.

"This one," he said when he had returned with another box, "is Ebony and Phoenix feather, 12 inches." Albus took the wand and gave it an eager wave through the air and sent one of his school book crashing against a shelf causing a few wands to fall to the floor, Mischief made a small frightened sound. "Not to worry." Mr. Ollivander said and Albus did not know if he was talking about the wand that hadn't worked or the ones that fell to the floor.

"Ah," Mr. Ollivander called as he pulled another wand from off the shelf. "Cherry and Unicorn tail hair, 8 and a half inches. I finished this one just last week." He beamed passing Albus the wand, but almost as soon as the wand touched Albus' hand Mr. Ollivander had snatched it back. "_Not_, that one." He said emphatically. "You are a tough customer," he teased, "But I will find a wand for you yet even if I must check in every last box."

Mr. Ollivander had meant it as a joke, but the pile of discarded wands was nearly as tall as Albus was when they finally found his wand.

"I have not sold one of these in many years." Mr. Ollivander said as he walked forward carrying a very old box with writing on it that Albus could not read. "I was a man much younger than your father when I sold the last one, and now I believe this one, is meant for _you_." He opened the box and inside it was a wand that looked very similar to all the other wand. True it's hilt was carved with two thin winding leaves, but other wands had had ornate carvings, some much more ornate than this one. Albus picked it, timidly, out of the box and felt a tingling in his fingertips. "It was made in the middle ages by an ancestor of mine. Hazel and Unicorn tail hair, 11 and a quarter inches. It was very rare in the middle ages for wands to be made with Unicorn hair, most wands of that time were made with more common substances like Kneazle whiskers, or Dittany stalk. Then a wand of Unicorn core would have only been used by a King's child."

Albus gulped nervously then waved the wand and silver and gold sparks trailed the wand through the air.

"Perfect!" Mr. Ollivander exclaimed. He handed Albus the long box, and clapped his hands together loudly.

Albus saw out of the corner of his eye his father dropping a few coins into Mr. Ollivander's hand, but again he was too excited to hear what they were saying. He finally had a wand.

* * *

"What are these markings on the box?" Albus asked his father as they walked toward Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

"I'm not sure." He said after looking at them very closely for a moment. "They look like runes." He remarked.

"Can you read them"

"No." His father replied flatly. "Aunt Hermione can. I don't think I'd bother if I were you though, it likely just the wood, core and length of the wand."

Albus was about to respond when walking down the cobbled street toward them was his mother, along with James and Lily, who was holding her mother's hand. The two looked very much alike, both were heavy with freckles, and they shared the same blue eyes, they also had the same fiery red hair. But his brother James, who had seen evidently seen them and was now running to them, had his father's messy black hair, but he also had his mother's blue eyes, but from who he got his height, Albus had no idea. For though James was only two years older than his brother he towered over him by at least a foot, and likely more.

"James!" Albus cried eagerly at his brother, and the two met in the middle. "James look at my wand! But be careful it's very old."

"Old?" James scoffed. "It's brand new!"

"Yeah, but it was made in the middle ages!"

"No way!" James exclaimed, and looked at it closely. "It doesn't look old. It looks like my wand." He said taking out his own. It was true, Albus thought, the tone of the wood differents, and where the leaves on Albus' wand looked like they were on top of the wand itself, the small lines in James' wand were carved into it, but yes, Albus' wand was a wand like any other.

"Boys." They're mother called out in her soft voice. "Are you coming?"

They had not noticed it, but they'd stopped right in front of the ice cream shop.

* * *

As the Hogwarts Express pulled away from King's Cross station, Albus, with his head out the window was waving goodbye to his father, to his mother and to his younger sister - but mainly to his father. As the train turned around a bend and Albus could no longer see his father and he pulled himself back into the compartment of the train where he sat all alone, with tears streaming down from his brilliant emerald eyes. His brother was supposed to ride with him on his first trip to Hogwarts, but instead he was sitting with his friends in the third year's section of the train. His only other friend attending Hogwarts this year, Rose Weasley, had her own friends that she would want to sit with, and Albus didn't want to join them. Rose was nice, she was fun to be around, but Albus couldn't stand her friends, they were too girly, they didn't care about anything important, like Quidditch or Wizard's Chess, they just whispered to each other and giggled.

So there he sat in an empty train compartment, on cold black leather seats with only his pet ferret to keep him company. Struggling not to cry he pulled a chocolate frog out of his moke skin pouch and ate it; and felt a little better after.

He looked down at the card, _Severus Snape_, it read. The man in the card stared out at him with an angry expression. He had greasy black hair, sallow skin and a large hooked nose. This was the man that he was named after? The man that his father had said mere moments ago was one of the bravest men he'd ever met? Albus turned the card over.

_A hero in the Second Wizarding War, Severus Snape served as informant for the Order of the Phoenix, gaining vital information from both the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself, and passing information to them. Snape was also an accomplished occlumens and the successor to Albus Dumbledor as Hogwarts Headmaster._

Albus turned the card over again and Snape was gone.

It would be fun Hogwarts, he thought. New friends to make, spells to learn, Quidditch to play. He looked hopefully out the windows thinking of all the countless possibilities that awaited him at Hogwarts.

Just when he'd wiped the final tear away, a thin boy with slicked back blond hair, bold grey eyes and a severely pointed face, and a taller, fatter boy with curly black hair, slammed open the sliding glass door. "This is the last compartment," said the blond boy in a quick sharp voice. "So _get out_."

Albus began to tremble when he heard the words, the tears he'd held in came streaming back down his cheeks and he begrudgingly got up to collect his things.

"Wait a second," the blond one ordered, then he whispered something to the taller fatter boy, and the tall fat boy whispered back. "Is that your trunk?" the blond boy asked looking at the trunk Albus was pulling out from under his seat. "Is that your trunk?" He asked again in his icy tone. "Are you A. S. P.?"

Albus didn't know what answer the boy was looking for, he felt he would be wrong no matter what answer he gave so he nodded his head slowly as a response.

"A. S. P. as in Albus... ... _Something_ Potter? Son of Harry Potter, Head Auror, and the man who destroyed Voldemort?" The blond boy asked sharply.

Albus was still at a loss for words as to what was happening to him, so he simply nodded again.

The blond whispered something else to the tall fat boy, and again the tall fat boy whispered back. "Nevermind Albus, I'm sorry, you can stay." The pointy faced boy smiled.

Albus stood in the middle of the small train compartment with his mouth open slightly as if he might say something, but he didn't know what to say. Instead he put his ferret cage back down beside him and pushed his trunk back under his seat, and sat back down onto the cold leather seats of the suddenly crowded compartment.

It was the blond boy who broke the silence, "Oh, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Scorpius Malfoy, and this_ lovely_ little thing here is Gregory Goyle." Scorpius said pointing his thumb harshly at Gregory who was standing behind him.

"Uh... … …" was all Albus could manage to say, his brain was still trying to process how this boy could go from kicking him out of his compartment, and then welcoming him back. Albus knew his father was a famous wizard but no one had ever treated him differently than any other kid. Maybe it was because the only other children he had been around were Weasleys, and Weasleys didn't care if you were the Minister of Magic they weren't going to treat you special.

"Whus wrong? Ferret got your tongue?" Gregory said laughing at his own joke like it was the most clever thing he had ever heard.

"_Shut your mouth Goyle!_" Scorpius snapped in retort. "I'm sorry about him," he continued calmly to Albus. "He's not exactly the brightest bulb on the tree."

"Uh..." at this point he was just hoping that he wasn't drooling. "I'm... Uh, I'm Albus." He had finally managed. "Al," he spurted out. "My uh, my friends... My friends call me Al."

With what looked like his best smile, the blond boy stuck his hand out toward Albus. "It's nice to meet you Albus." Scorpius said sitting down in the seat opposite to the empty seat that was left for Albus to take. "Sit down. Please." Scorpius gestured to the empty seat.

"Nice to, uh... to meet you too." Albus replied a little less nervously. These two he knew would be Slytherins by the way they acted, they were exactly the kind of people Albus didn't want to be stuck with at Hogwarts for seven years, but here at least he was stuck with them.

"So Albus," Scorpius began. "We know we're headed for Slytherin house, but where do you think you will end up?" Scorpius' voice was slower and more steadied, like he was trying to make it sound a certain way, but Albus didn't know what way that was.

"Well uh, my mom, my dad and my brother were all in Gryffindor," Albus began tentatively. "So were all my aunts and uncles and most of my cousins," he continued, "and I'm really, _really_ hoping that I'll be in Gryffindor too."

"_Gryffindor_, why would you want to go _there_? With all the _mudbloods_ and _blood traitors_? Frankly the whole lot of them are _disgusting_!" Scorpius spat. If the boy's voice was sharp before now it was positively icey.

"_That's not true_!" Albus shouted at the two boys. He was standing now but he couldn't remember getting up.

Gregory, with a menacing look on his face, started to get out of his seat but Scorpius raised a hand to stop him. "Calm down Goyle, he's entitled to his opinion, even if it's the_ wrong_ opinion." From Scorpius spoke it was obvious even to Albus, that he'd been trained to handle himself in a respectable manner.

"It is_ not_ the wrong opinion!" Albus shouted still standing up, his face turning beet red.

"No it's_ not_. People like _you_, the _blood-traitors_, are_ destroying_ the magical blood. _Deluding_ with the blood of the _muggle scum_." Scorpius had risen from his seat as well and now the two were standing in the middle of the compartment screaming at each other.

"Even_ if_ that's true, that doesn't make it right to bully and torture other student over something that they can't control!" Albus screamed back. Goyle stood to make sure Scorpius didn't get hurt. "What if we all decided it was wrong to be a pure-blooded! Would you want_ us _to bully_ you_?" Albus was furious now, he was almost ready to hit Scorpius even if it meant that Gregory would hit him back and much harder.

"Why would anyone ever hate pure-bloods, that doesn't make any sense!" Scorpius asked genuinely, but it still felt like poison in Albus' ear.

"Well..." Albus paused for a moment. "What if you were a 'mudblood' ?"

"But I'm no-" Scorpius tried to say but Albus cut him off.

"_But what if you were_!" Albus shouted. "Would you want people to hate you and tease you and bully you for something you can't control!?"

"Well..." Scorpius began but couldn't finish.

The corners of Albus' lips lifted slightly and his posture relaxed.

"Well... Then... I guess I..." Scorpius had gotten further this time but he still couldn't finish the thought. Albus honestly didn't know where he would finish either if he was in Scorpius' position; if a belief he'd held his entire life had been shattered, and now frantically grasping at the falling pieces but they're too sharp to hold.

The silence stretched on and on; Albus and Gregory sat down but Scorpius remained standing, his jaw was hanging open and a dumbfounded look was plastered to his face.

"_NO_!" Scorpius screamed suddenly. "_NO! It's not true! It can't be true_." Scorpius' voice grew more controlled, he'd lost his earlier intensity but kept the icicle sharp tone. "You're trying to_ trick_ me. Well, you've failed. Come on Goyle. We're _leaving_." Scorpius snapped, and without a word Gregory stood up and followed Scorpius out of the compartment, and slammed the door much harder shut much harder than he'd opened it, leaving their luggage trunks behind.

Once again Albus was alone in the train compartment, and he sat silently looking out the window; watching windswept coniferous trees and half frozen autumn lakes pass by as condensation slowly grew on the inside of the window, and the only sound he heard as he closed his eyes was his pet ferret chewing on the bars of it's cage.


	3. Rose

"Hello? " said a girl with buck teeth and red hair, as she opened the door of the train compartment. "Can I sit with you?" she was surprised she'd been able to speak without crying.

"Oh course." answered the twin boys in perfect unison. "I'm Lorcan, and this is my brother Lysander." The one closer to her went on. The boys really were like mirror images of one another, they each had very fine blonde hair cut in a very unflattering bowl shape, extremely round faces, and a light smile on their faces.

"I'm... I'm Rose, Rose Weasley." she'd reached out her hand to shake but the boys just looked at her strangely.

"What're you doing?" asked them other boy, Lysander.

"Oh, ah... it's a way of greeting someone, you shake their hands." Maybe it was the time she'd spent in a muggle proprietary school, or maybe these two were just odd. She still wasn't sure, it was far too early to be making assumptions.

The first boy..._ Lorcan_ she had to remember their names._ Lorcan_, reached out his hand towards her own, Rose squeezed his hand and shook it up and down to show them how it was done. Then Lysander stretched out his hand and shook hers. "Nice to meet you." all three said in unison, then all three laughed.

Rose stowed her trunk under the seat and her cat Antheia, on the vacant seat beside her, sat down on the cold leather seat and wiped her eyes even though she wasn't crying. When she looked toward the boys again she saw them staring at her, both with a small musing smile on their faces.

No one spoke for a long time, and the awkward silence grew more and more uncomfortable. Finally Rose broke the silence, "So what house do you think you'll be sorted into?"

"Well," Lorcan started, "our mom was in Ravenclaw."

"And our dad was in Hufflepuff." Lysander finished.

"So I guess," Lorcan said picking up the conversation. "We'd be okay in either house."

"Gryffindor would be okay too though." Lysander said his smile growing bigger.

"Even though we're not very brave."

"But Slytherin wouldn't accept us."

"Because we're only Half-bloods."

"So that might not work out too well for us."

"Our dad used to joke, that we were so good at cleaning,"

"That we would be sorted into House Elf."

"But I think we'd be fine anywhere." Lorcan finished, then the two smiled their small smile again.

Rose was stunned, the boys were so in sync they seemed to be telepathic. She'd heard of telepaths before, legilimens they were called - she knew their name was based on the spell but she couldn't remember where the spell got it's name.

"What about you?" the boys asked together after a few seconds of silence had passed in which Rose was preoccupied thinking about spell names.

Rose snapped herself out of her thought process when the boys asked a second time. "Oh, well both of my parents were in Gryffindor, but mom says I'm so smart there's no way I won't be in Ravenclaw." Her smile beamed when she thought of her mother and how proud she would make her if she got into Ravenclaw. Rose's smile faded as she realized that she wouldn't see her parents again until December, she had to try really hard to hold back the tears this time.

The pain on her face must have been easily readable because one of the boys offered her a handkerchief. "Are you alright?" the other boy asked, she couldn't tell who was who because she'd been unable to hold the tears in and they were blurring her vision.

"Yes." she said taking the handkerchief from the boy - Lorcan she thought it was. "I was," she sighed, "I was just thinking about my mom and not seeing her until December. We've been apart before but never this long, it's just kinda..." she sighed again. "Sad." Rose looked up at the boys after drying her eyes to find them still smiling intently. "Right?" she asked pleadingly.

"Yes, but that's the fun of it." said one of the boys, Lysander she thought it was. "You get to be somewhere different, do different things with different people, differently." She didn't think it was the same boy who finished the sentence; the switching was starting to bother her.

"Yes, I guess so," She began to smile again. "Thanks." She was feeling a bit better now, it might even be fun to be away from home now.

There was another long silence but this one wasn't awkward this one was quite pleasant, filled with smiles, and high hopes for what the journey that lie ahead of them might bring. Her cousin James had told her horror stories about what Hogwarts was really like; but somehow even those stories seemed to be painted with an optimistic brush now.

The silence was broken this time by the raspy melody of an old woman's voice reverberating through the isles. "Anything from the trolley dears? Anything from the trolley?" Rose had only been given ten Galleons for the school year and she had no intentions on wasting any of them now on Chocolate Frogs and Every Flavour Beans.

"Have you got any Tonapple tea?" Lysander asked the old woman.

Rose had read a lot of books to get ready for her first year at Hogwarts; but she had never heard of Tonapple - not even in 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi'.

"'Ave I got any what?" The old woman asked, the melody had gone out of her voice, leaving only the rasp and an odd accent, which Rose thought made the old woman sound like a Dickens character.

"Tonapple tea?" Lorcan repeated, which visibly confused the old woman - apparently she hadn't heard of Tonapple tea either.

"I 'avent a_ clue_ what that is. Would ju like anything else? Chocolate Frogs? Licorice Wand? Flavour-Changing Lollipop? Fizzing Whizbees? I got it all, just not Tonapple Tea."

"No thank you." Lysander said and the old woman continues down the halls, her sing-songy voice once again rebounding and redoubling off of the walls.

"Um," Rose began. "I've never heard of Tonapple tea before either, what is it?" She was really genuinely confused, did the twins know something she didn't or were they crazy? The old woman sure thought they were.

Without saying a word Lorcan took out a small book bag from underneath his seat, and pulled three light blue apples out of it and handed one to her. Rose sat and looked at her apple while the twins eagerly bit into their own; it looked just like a regular apple in every aspect (besides its blue skin).

"Try it." Lorcan said in a deep voice, that was not unnatural sounding but definitely unnatural of an 11 year old boy.

"They change the tone of your voice." Lysander explained, his voice too had become much too deep for his body.

"Tonapple tea is made from the leaves of the Tonapple," Lorcan said, his voice had become so deep that now Rose thought she was talking to a giant.

"It raises the tone of your voice." Lysander finished, his voice grower lower than his brother's.

"But if you eat the fruit," lower.

"It lowers the tone of your voice." and lower.

"Try it, it's good, " and lower still.

"Tastes the same as a regular apple." said Lysander, his voice now impossibly, and ridiculously low.

Rose was looking at the two boys in utter shock and confusion. Too many question were going through her head she couldn't imagine where to start. _Why hadn't she heard of Tonapples before?_ Her brain asked itself while her lips asked the boys "How long do the effects last? "_ I don't know why you haven't heard of them before. Maybe I'm not as smart as you think I am, maybe we just didn't read the right books, maybe the right books haven't been written yet, maybe the Tonapples are just regular apples charmed to change the pitch of your voice. 54 other possibilities found should I continue?_

But before she could answer her brain one of the boys had answered the question she had posed out loud, "It depends on how much you eat, go ahead try it." the voice had become just a low grumble now, anything said in that tone of voice would have sounded scary; but the words reminded Rose of a muggle fairy tale her mother used to tell her - one about an evil witch who offers the beautiful girl a poisoned apple.

"No thank you." she said out loud, handing the apple - or Tonapple whatever it actually was - back to Lorcan._ No thank you,_ she then said to her brain.

Lorcan put the Tonapple back into his bag and continued smiling absentmindedly.

Another silence began to stretch, Rose quickly nipped it in the bud and used the friendship techniques she'd learnt from her mother. "So what kind of music do you like?" She asked them half forcing a smile.

"We like the sounds the Earth makes." Lorcan replied sincerely, his voice was starting to return to normal. _Mental note: It takes approximately one minute for the effects of one bit of a Tonapple to wear off._

"The crickets," Lysander's voice was still extremely deep but he'd eaten nearly the whole Tonapple.

"The waves,"

"The wind through the trees." It was easy to tell the twins apart now, even when they started talking like they do, but the sound it made was quite cacophonous.

Rose really wasn't expecting that answer, It made her speech stumble, "Uh... Okay, what about Quidditch, do you follow Quidditch?"

"No." Said Lorcan.

"We don't really get it," Lysander explained.

"The snitch ruins the game." Lorcan continued.

"Uh..." Rose was stumbling for something else to say but her brain couldn't think of any scenario that didn't end just as the last two did. "So, what do you like to do?" She said cautiously.

"Well, our Mom is a Naturalist," Lysander began.

"And our Dad is a Magizoologist," Lorcan took over.

"So we have spent a lot of time around magical creatures" Lysander.

"Thestrals and Hippogriffs," Lorcan.

"Nogtails and Streelers," Lysander.

"Erumpents and Centaurs," Lorcan.

"We even saw a Quintaped once." Lysander finished.

Rose didn't know what half of those creatures were, even though she'd studied extensively to prepare herself for the school year.

Maybe the twins weren't as weird as they seemed. Maybe there was _a lot_ she could learn from the boys.

And with that thought she began to beam at the two boys, and they smiled back their gentle musing smile.


	4. James

James rushed into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor with his brother Albus at his side. Albus made it through the door first, but only by a narrow margin. Inside the shop was painted pure white with colourful advertisements on every wall. James saw his mother at the very end of the short line, with his sister Lily holding her hand tightly. His father was at one of the many small round tables, most of which were light blue or pink, but this one was a soft yellow. Albus had already rushed to stand beside his mother, but James took a seat across from his father.

"What's got you down?" His father asked.

James hadn't realized it himself, but he was feeling a tad off.

"You're not jealous of Al are you?"

"No!" James said defiantly, even though it was untrue. Why should Albus get the cool wand?

"You know son," his father began, " 'the wand chooses the wizard.' And if there was a reason that Al's wand choose him, then there was an equally important reason that your wand choose you."

James was heard the words but they didn't mean anything to him, he grumbled a response.

"What I'm trying to say, is that you shouldn't blame Albus. He didn't choose the wand, he had no choice in the matter at all, we must have been through a dozen dozen wands before Ollivander found the one." He looked up at his father for a split second and saw him smiling. "Trust me fighting amongst brothers never does any good. Now go on, mum's at the front of the line."

James sprinted to the front of the line, just as Lily was deciding what flavour she wanted. James looked hungrily at all of the different flavours of ice cream, they had Peppermint, Spearmint and Sourmint, Vanilla Fudge, Ice Cream Cone, and Roast Duck, Heavenly Hornworm, Devilish Daybettle, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean!

"And what will you have young man." The melodious voice of Julian Fortescue said to him.

"I'll have the Bertie Bott's please!" James said grinning.

"Ah, a different flavour in every scoop." He sang.

"Me too." Cried Albus.

"We'd better get one for dad too, and I'll have a Vanilla Fudge." James heard his mother saying.

A moment later they all had their ice cream dishes in their hands and were sitting around the small yellow table. "What did you get me?" James' father asked.

"Bertie Bott's." Said Lily enthusiastically.

"Oh really." He chuckled. "And what did you get?" Looking across the table at his little sister's dish, James saw whatever she had in her dish was the brightest of all shades of pink.

"Strawberry, with strawberry syrup and strawberry sprinkles." She smiled, and everyone laughed before they ate their own.

Cabbage and Peppermint. James thought as he took the first bite of his ice cream. _Yum._

In a far corner of the room James could see two very pretty, very blonde, girls staring at him. To Louis or Fred this would have been a dream come true, but to James it was just annoying. People always used to stare at his father, the great Harry Potter, and at him, at the whole family really. It had been nice at first, talking to everyone, saying 'Hello' and even signing the occasional autograph. Thankfully though, people eventually got used to seeing a celebrity and for the most part things had gotten a lot quieter, but still every once and awhile someone would want a picture, or to shake his hand or sign an autograph.

_If they were staring at me for something_ I_ did, and not just because I am the son of Harry Potter, maybe it would be different._ James thought as he took another bite of his ice cream.

Nougat and Peanut Butter. Yum.

* * *

The family of five strolled down the street together, headed for The Leaky Cauldron so they could take the Floo Network back to their cozy living room. All their purchases besides Albus' wand and his pet ferret were now safely tucked into their mokeskin pouch which hung around Ginny's neck.

Suddenly James realized that he Albus and Lily were walking down diagon alley alone. At the exact same time the other children had realized this too, they all turned. Their parents were standing outside of Quality Quidditch Supplies, with their nose pressed to the glass, practically drooling.

"Wow." James heard his father say as he walked closer.

"Wow." He heard his mother echo.

They had both been great Quidditch players in their times, his father was the youngest Seeker at Hogwarts in a century, helping Gryffindor win almost every Quidditch cup in his seven years, and his mother had played Chaser professionally for the Holyhead Harpies, the all female team that had only ever won the Quidditch World Cup once and the year after his mother had retired. They had both bought new brooms last year when the Hurricane Moc 20 came out, he could imagine that they'd buy whatever new broom had come out.

Eventually they remembered that they had children at started looking around for them, but by now James and his siblings were standing right behind them. "Oh there you are." His mother said with a sigh of relief.

"James," his father said, "are you sure you don't want a broom?"

His parents had moved out of the window and James could see what they had been staring at. The Snitch's Bane. It had to be the fastest looking broom James had ever seen, it was short for a one person broom only four and a half feet, it looked like it was made from mahogany, stained dark and on the handle in an elegant script and gold lettering were the words, _Snitch's Bane_. It had two shining silver stabilizers that also acted as a kickstand, there was also a third stabilizer for yaw control. The bristles were a tan yellow colour, perfectly accenting the handle. There was no price tag, but James thought it had to cost more than their house.

"Wow." He said.

"Do you want it?" His father asked.

"You're kidding?" James said not believing his ears.

"No, do you want it?"

James thought about it, sure he _wanted_ it, he was a decent enough flyer, but he wasn't good enough at quidditch to be on the team, so the broom would only collect dust in his room.

"No." He answered, and his father didn't question it, he loved his father for that, for trusting him enough to make his own decisions.

"Alright." His father smiled.

* * *

"Did you hear that Flitwick is going to be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?" A boy said

"Flitwick!?" A shocked voice responded. "What happened to Professor Harris?"

"I dunno. I heard he died."

"What!? Professor Harris? No way, he's the greatest Defence teacher Hogwarts has had since Voldemort jinxed the position."

"How would you know that? This is only your third year!"

His friends went on but James was no longer listening. He was blatantly staring at the radiant beauty in the compartment next to his own. She was new, that didn't happen much at Hogwarts, but then again maybe she wasn't new, maybe James had simply never noticed her before. He looked over at her again, no that was impossible, she had to be new. She had loosely curled hair that flowed down her shoulders, glowing white on one side and shadowy black on the other, but it was the two iridescent pearls delicately set upon her face, that truly caught his attention.

Next to her was a tall, muscular beast of a fifth year wizard, Arcturus Selwyn... the fourth. He had jet black mid-length hair that met at a peak on his head, and eyes darker than the night's sky, he boldly contrasted all that black with six silver hoop earrings in his right ear. But even without this mountain of a man looming over her, James would never have a chance with a girl like that, he was a Half-Blood Gryffindor and she was - he assumed by her company - a Pure-Blood, and tragically, no matter how much James wanted it to be so, they could never be together.

"Hey! James!" one of the boys said, snapping his fingers in James' face to get his attention. It wasn't until his owl, Stargazer, hooted that he finally turned his head.

"Sorry, Fred." James said. "Daydreaming." It was only a half lie really.

"Me and Fred were thinking of trying out for quidditch again this year. You want to come too?" the other boy - Louis - asked him, very enthusiastically - almost begging.

"Again?" James asked shocked. "Are you forgetting that we got pummeled last year, and that was just tryouts. Only Fred actually made the team and he broke his collarbone,_ twice_." James said. His father was a great seeker, like his father before him, but James wasn't cut out for quidditch. He enjoyed watching though and he understood all the rules, maybe in a couple of years he might tryout for the Gryffindor team, but not this year.

"Yeah but that was last year." Fred insisted smiling. Fred always looked odd when he smiled, his freckles would shine through is caramel coloured skin and give him leopard spots.

"Yeah. That was last year," Louis agreed. "When we were just puny little second years. Now we're bigger and stronger and we're sure to make the team."

"Look at us Louis, we're not big or strong. Fred isn't even five foot tall." James said, not meaning it as an insult but he instantly regretted saying it. "We're _not_ quidditch players."

"We're definitely not quidditch players if we don't even try to be." Louis said annoyed.

"Sorry guys, go tryout, have fun. Try not to die though, okay?" James said with a reluctant and forced smile.

The two boys began rambling off quidditch stats to each other, and arguing over which team, and which player was the best, and James once again began to stare at the beautiful girl who would never return his feelings for her.

"James!" Louis said, snapping his fingers and breaking James' gaze yet again. "Hello? James?" He teased. "We're here."

As James turned to look at his friends who were gathering their things he'd gone almost the entire length of the train ride staring at her, it had only felt like an instant to him. He glanced back in her direction just for a second, and he swore from out of the corner of his eye, he saw her wink one of her stunning and seductive eyes at him before she left her own compartment, and he smiled. A smile brighter than he thought he had ever smiled in his life. A smile that was full of hope. A smile that said 'Anything is possible', and for James, even if she hadn't actually smiled at him, believing that she did was enough.

"James!" Fred called from the door as he was leaving their small train compartment. "Come on, we're going."

James quickly shook his head out of the trance the girl's spellbinding beauty seemed to have put him in, collected his trunk and Stargazer's cage and walked off the Hogwarts Express with his two best friends.

They filed in line behind the other students making their way to the self-pulling carriages. His father had once told him that they were pulled by creatures called thestrals, great skeletal black horses with wings. He thought his father was surely lying to him, if they were so large how come he couldn't see them. His father had said they were invisible to anyone who had not witnessed death first hand. James still hadn't believed him though. He asked all the Gryffindors in his year if they could see them, and only one girl, Erin Wood, said that she could, but James was sure she was lying because Louis was with him.

It was common knowledge among their year that Erin had a crush on Louis, and James knew that Louis liked her back, but neither of them ever made a move.

They were standing under a large overgrowth of trees now, they were next in line for a carriage. Up ahead James saw Victoire sitting on a carriage full of other seventh year girls, the moon was shining down on her long platinum blonde hair making her seem to glow. James had had a crush on Victoire when he was younger, now she was dating Teddy Lupin, who was like a brother to him, it made him made and a little jealous to think about it.

Soon, James was in his own carriage with Louis and Fred, and a Hufflepuff boy that he didn't know. They rode in relative silence, up to the hulking great door that led into the entrance hall. They were guided into the great hall by the new Head Boy, who James did not recognize but he could see that he was a Gryffindor. They all took their seats at the furthest left of the four long tables. James waited eagerly to see his little brother sorted into Gryffindor.

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**AN: I think I am going to re-re-write this chapter and possibly chapters 1 and 2 as well, I do not feel that I kept to the characters true enough in those early days. Leave you review let me know what you think, or PM me and tell me if you've already reviewed this chapter (though I believe only two people have reviewed this chapter).**

**Next re-write will be either Albus II or James II, I haven't decided yet, let me know if you've got a preference.**


	5. Scorpius

Scorpius hurried off of the scarlet steam engine with Goyle following at his heels. As he stepped of the train a cold breeze rustled his blonde hair. It was dark out now, the only light was that of a double row of lamp posts that led off to the right of the train. There was a thin layer of mist covering the ground and across the still black lake he could see Hogwarts, lit from the inside by thousands of torches.

"That_ stupid_ prat! That barmy sac of... ARGHH!" He was still fuming from the unfortunate encounter with Albus Potter. He knew now why his father never spoke of Harry Potter, if his son was any indication he was surely just as insufferable.

"_Malfoy!_" A voice snapped at him. He turned around, sure that it would be a teacher and hoped that he would not be given detention before the school year had began, but it wasn't a teacher. It was much, much worse.

Trouble walked towards them, with it's nose stuck high in the air. Her long brown hair flowed behind her and cascaded through the air in the wind's caress. She had deep brown eyes flecked with gold, and a sharp jaw like his. He might have found her pretty, if she didn't have the personality on an angry Grindylow. She stopped in front of them, and put one long clawed hand on her hip. "You shouldn't be cursing on the first day of school." She smiled coldly. "What has my big lug of a brother done this time?" She cast a glance at Goyle before returning her gaze to Scorpius.

"I haven't done anything Katherine!" Goyle said offensively, but Katherine only laughed sardonically.

"I wasn't talking to you sweety." The words were so cold the air around them froze as she spoke. Goyle had been born ten months after his older sister, and they had been going at each other ever since. And now much to Katherine's and Goyle's dismay, they would be starting at Hogwarts together. "Now where was I?" She asked out loud, regaining her composure.

"You were just leaving Kat."

"Oh little brother." She said in feigned fondness as she raised her right hand and put one of her long sharp nails on his nose. "Don't call me Kat." Her voice was plain and cold again as she spoke, and in one fluid movement of her wrist she flayed the skin from the tip of his long broad nose.

Goyle screamed and clutched his nose, but before he could react a loud gruff voice called out to them. "Oy, you three. C'mon." They turned and saw him, a giant of a man, three times the size of Scorpius and more than five times has wide. He was waiting by the edge of the black lake, beside a dozen wooden boats, most already filled with students. "Firs' years, c'mon."

They were the only three left on the white stone platform, and realizing their embarrassment the three hurried off towards the large man.

"No more'n four to a boat." He said through his bushy white beard.

"There's only three of us." Katherine remarked as she stepped cautiously into the boat.

"There's no way I'm getting in a boat with her!" Goyle said indignantly.

"Oh yes ye are. Unless you want to share a boat with me." The large man laughed, and begrudgingly Boyle climbed into the boat too.

Scorpius followed him in, and when they were settled the large man got into a boat all his own. "Everybody in?" He asked. "Right then - FORWARD!" He bellowed, and all the bots streaked out across the lake headed for the castle as smooth as glass.

Everyone was silent. Most people were either in awe of the castle and what was happening, but Scorpius, Goyle and Katherine were silent because neither of them had a desire to speak while the other was near.

"Heads down." Came the large man's voice as they approached the cliff on top of which the castle stood. They all duck and the boats took them through a curtain of ivy that his the entrance to the school. They were taken through a long dark tunnel, until they finally stopped at what looked like a small harbor. The boats driven themselves onto the stoney ground and the students had all clambered out. The large man took one of the torches off of the wall and said, "Right then, everyone's here?" He counted their heads to make sure. "C'mon then."

They all followed the light of his torch up a narrow passageway that soon broadened into smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and halted in front of a great oak front door. "Everyone here?" He asked again but did not bother to count them this time. He raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the door.

The door swung open almost once, and a tall and handsome man in burgundy robes stood on the other side. He had a hard face, and an old but not fading scar on his cheek, but his eyes were a soft blue.

"The firs' years Professor Longbottom," said the large man.

"Thank you Hagrid." Professor Longbottom smiled lightly. "I will take them from here." He stepped aside to let them pass.

He led them into a great entrance hall and stopped atop another set of stairs in front of another large oak door. To the teft of the door there were two very large hourglasses, one was topped with a lion, and the other with a badger, to the right of the door were two more large hourglasses, these two were capped with an eagle and a serpent. Scorpius recognized these from his father's stories of Hogwarts, they were the hourglasses in which house points were recorded.

"Soon," Professor Longbottom began. "The Sorting Ceremony will begin. The Sorting Ceremony is an ancient tradition here at Hogwarts; each of you will be placed in one of our Houses - either Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin." He gestured towards each of the hourglasses in turn. "Your House will be like your family while you stay at Hogwarts. So I must ask that you remain silent, and act respectfully, until the ceremony is finished." And with that the Professor turned around and stood in front of the students, in a relatively single file line, waiting for the large oak doors to swing open.

"Fat chance." A boy's voice whispered in Scorpius' ear. Scorpius was about to yell at the boy, he hated when people whispered into his ear, he hated people touching his ears in general but when he saw who it was he stopped.

"Don't do that Goyle." Scorpius said more kindly than he wanted to, as he rubbed his ear.

"Sorry Scorp." Apologized Goyle.

"And don't call me Scorp!" He hissed quietly.

"Sorry Boss." Goyle apologized again.

"I'm glad to see you here, _Scorp._" Katherine said from Scorpius' other side. "I didn't think you'd be able to come after father told me about your money troubles. Glad to see that he was wrong" Katherine's words stung Scorpius like a snake's bite, what made it seem worse was that the words wrung true. The family apothecary had not been doing much business, but it was nothing serious, at least that's what his father had told him.

"It's nothing that should worry you." Scorpius said trying to be respectful as he turned away from the girl in an attempt to end the conversation. He hated Katherine for this very reason, whenever she was bored she tried to provoke people - even her best friends - just to get a reaction out of them.

"Well that's good." Katherine smirked. "I'd hate to think that you'd-"

_"Goyle."_ Scorpius hissed under his breath while Katherine's verbal assault raged on. The large oaf of a boy, had been standing behind Scorpius this entire time completely oblivious to what was going on.

"Yeah, boss?" Goyle said as he slowly turned around, a dumbfounded smile plastered on his round face.

"Stand in front of me." Scorpius ordered, and Goyle obliged without a single word or question. "And put a hex on Katherine if she says anything else about my family." Scorpius spat with white hot rage as he whipped his head around so Katherine wouldn't see a single tear fall down his cheek before it was quickly wiped away. He could hear Katherine still chattering mindlessly, but he tried to block it out.

The doors of the great hall opened with a crack and a creak, and the tall professor started through the doors. "Follow me." He boomed and was followed promptly by the hoard of first year students.

Candles floated and bobbed through the air, lighting the great hall with a bright orange glow, and a warmth that felt like a hug. There was no ceiling in the room, there was actually Scorpius knew, but it had been charmed to look like the night sky which tonight was light only by the stars. The first years all marched through the hall slowly in between the large wooden dining tables, that were already filled to bursting with students.

To Scorpius' left, were students with robes trimmed in the yellow and black of Hufflepuff, and to his right, the students wore the blue and bronze of Ravenclaw. Scorpius looked down at his own untrimmed robes,_ Soon I'll be wearing the glorious green and shining silver of Slytherin._ He thought eagerly, his smile returning and the gloomy thoughts that had crossed his mind earlier were all but erased from memory.

Professor longbottom had retrieved a three-legged stool and an oversized and thoroughly worn out old hat, that he placed it gently onto the stool.

The hat began to move and twist all on it's own and Scorpius could swear he saw the hat turn into the face of an old stubborn looking man. To the shock and horror of the first year students the hat open it's wrinkled mouth and began to sing in a harsh raspy voice.

_Once again I sing my song,_

_And do the Job that I was made for._

_But heed my warning ye who listen,_

_Lest it may not come to war._

_I do not mean to scare you,_

_Or to instill fear._

_But an evil I knew long ago,_

_Will Return this year._

_Many thought the evil killed,_

_Or else disappeared._

_But now it's risen from the dead,_

_And for some the end is near._

_So stand united young,_

_And stand united old._

_And never let yourselves forget,_

_What the Sorting Hat has told._

_Gryffindors with bravest hearts,_

_Courage, chivalry and nerve._

_Will fight until their dying breaths,_

_To protect and to preserve._

_Hufflepuffs are gifted with kindness,_

_Patience and dedication._

_And when the battle's fought and won,_

_Forgiveness is salvation._

_Ravenclaws full of wit and wisdom,_

_And individuality._

_Always think three steps ahead,_

_Of the shrewdest enemy._

_Slytherin are the cunning,_

_The determined and ambitious._

_And long ago they earned the title,_

_House of the Malicious._

_But I think by now is far past time,_

_They shed that lowly name._

_And regain their rightful status,_

_And reclaim their rightful fame._

_For not all Slytherins are evil,_

_And most have got good hearts._

_It is only great ambition,_

_That sets Gryffindor apart._

_And to dear old Ravenclaw,_

_Slytherin is most alike._

_Both value those students sharp of mind,_

_But only one use their cunning to strike._

_What sets Slytherin apart,_

_From Hufflepuff you ask._

_For sure there are no two houses,_

_So unalike in tasks._

_But there difference is only,_

_The difference in between._

_The determined and the dedicated,_

_Not so different, if you're keen._

_Now listen closely my dear friends,_

_To the last words I would say._

_United you may stand a chance,_

_But divided there is no way._

When the hat finished it's song a shocked silence fell over the room, there were a few sparse claps, mainly from the Slytherins, and the hat bowed at each of the four tables and became still once more.

Professor Longbottom cleared his throat and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment from the sleeve of his robes. "When I call your name, you will sit on the stool, put on the hat, and you will be sorted." He called and half a second later there was complete silence in the great hall, where there had once been the cacophonous noise of footfalls, mumbling students, and giggling girls.

"Ardleson, Adam."

A scrawny and scared looking boy slowly made his way from the very end of the line of first years with the eyes of all his peers locked onto him. When the boy finally made it to the small stage on which the stool stood, he looked as if he might pass out. "It's okay. Nothing at Hogwarts can hurt you." Professor Longbottom said as he put a hand on the boy's shoulder to reassure him.

When the boy took his seat, He placed the Sorting Hat lightly onto his head; the hat had not been on for half a second before it blurted out in a harsh and very loud voice, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff students to Scorpius' left exploded with cheers and applause as the boy - no longer looking nervous - took his seat with his new House. "Barton, Travis." The professor called and the Sorting Ceremony continued, and a tall confidant black boy strode from the middle of the crowd.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The table on the far left cheered this time, several of the Gryffindors stood to greet Terry as he joined them.

"Bones, Lawrence."

"GRYFFINDOR!" Shouted the hat again, and Lawrence almost ran to his table.

"Carmine, Amanda."

"RAVENCLAW!" The table to Scorpius' right was the one to cheer this time, louder than any table had cheered yet.

"Cook, Tamsyn" became the first new Slytherin, and her twin sister "Wynona" became the second. "Darnby, Michael" went to Hufflepuff, and "Dorner, Felix" was sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Eagle, Gallardo." The handsome looking olive skinned boy hardly had the hat on his head before it cried out.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Finch-Fletchley, Clare."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

It took awhile for the hat to decide where to sort "Finnigan, Thomas." The sandy haired and freckled boy that stood in front of Scorpius in line, but the hat finally decided to sort him into Gryffindor.

Scorpius was beginning to get restless, standing around doing nothing, while the rest of his classmates marched on up to the stage and were sorted. He could wait for his turn.

"Goyle, Gregory." Professor Longbottom called, but before Goyle walked to the stage he looked at Scorpius for permission and Scorpius nodded curtly.

"SLYTHERIN!" The Sorting Hat cried as soon as Goyle placed the hat on his head.

"Goodbye _Scorp._" Katherine shot into Scorpius' ear again. As she began to walk towards to stool before Professor Longbottom had called her name.

"Goyle, Katherine."

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat roared a second later.

"Hurley, Mitchell."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Ingram, Nautica." Professor Longbottom called and a tall girl strode forward, she must have been in her third year at least, Scorpius thought. Her hair was a glowing white on one side and a shadowy black on the other, Scorpius only saw her face for a second but that was long enough to notice her two pearl-like eyes.

The hat was placed on her head and after a moment's deliberation it called out, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Kross, Breanne."

_Kross._ Scorpius thought with venom. One of his Father's old friends. Breanne's father was a pure-blood, could trace his ancestry back 6 generations without even a single half-blood in the family. Then he goes and marries a muggle. Scorpius shook his head unapprovingly.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Longbottom, Alice." The professor called with a smile and winked at the girl Scorpius assumed was his daughter as she too tried on the hat.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The Sorting Hat said after a moment.

"Malfoy, Scorpius." The Professor called and a lump formed instantly in Scorpius' throat. He longed for the restlessness he felt earlier because now he was nervous beyond belief. He slowly made his way up the hallway and toward the stool. He picked up the Sorting Hat and cautiously put it on his head.

_Please put me in Slytherin. Please put me in Slytherin._ Scorpius pleaded silently with the hat, and was shocked when it responded to him.

"Slytherin eh?" The hat said.

"Yes Slytherin! Please." Scorpius begged.

"You do have the qualities of a good Slytherin, very ambitious and a sharp mind too. But I also sense a great deal of bravery in you, and much courage too. You would do well in Gryffindor." The hat said.

Scorpius gripped the edges of the stool and thought,_ Not Gryffindor, not Gryffindor._

"Not Gryffindor eh?" The hat said. Well then it had better be - SLYTHERIN!"

The hat's cry was deafeningly loud on top of his head, and his ears were still ringing as he eagerly made his way toward his new classmates at the Slytherin Table, he shook the hands of some of the newer Slytherins before taking a seat next to Goyle. There was some meaningless small talk amongst the Slytherins that Scorpius couldn't hear, he has still too excited, his heart was pounding to rapidly.

"Meadows, Lauralie."Professor Longbottom called but Scorpius wasn't paying attention.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

When everything quieted down again he heard the professor bellow, "Potter Albus." A hush overtook the entire room as every house waited with bated breath to see where the newest Potter boy would go. Everyone was becoming restless as the minutes passed by and the boy had still not been sorted. The low-mumbling of the students began to grow as they waited for the boy. Soon the whispers, had become shouts and the room was consumed by the noise. Professor Longbottom pointed his wand at his neck, "QUIET!" The hush overtook the crowd again, and the sorting hat began to wiggle on the boys head, and cleared its throat.

"SLYTHERIN!"

The room was still silent and in complete shock, no one had expected that a Potter would ever be sorted into Slytherin.

The boy walked slowly towards his new house with tears rolling down from his bright green eyes. He sat next to Scorpius, but unlike all the other new Slytherins, he did not smile, he did not shake hands and he did not say a word. He sat with his head slumped low and cried.

There weren't many students left now. The Scamander boys went to Ravenclaw and so did Rose Weasley, Molly Weasley however went to Gryffindor and Blaise Zabini Jr. went to Slytherin.

"Thank you all for your patience." The Headmaster said as Professor Longbottom took the hat and stool back to where he had taken them from. "Now, is not the time for long winded speeches." He made a grand sweeping gesture and the food magically appeared on the tables. It was one of the greatest feasts Scorpius had ever seen, and being a Malfoy he had seen his fair share of feasts. "Now is the time to eat." The Headmaster declared as he took his place in the centre of the High Table and began to eat from his golden plate, everyone else soon followed suit.

There was roast beef, roast chicken, and roast turkey, along with steak, pork chops, lamb chops bacon and several different kinds of sausages. Vegetables in all varieties and in all varieties of sauces, along with 5 different kinds of potatoes. Chips, yorkshire puddings and a seemingly endless supply of gravy, and what Scorpius thought where Peppermint Humbugs which he didn't dare touch, he had some of almost everything else though.

When they were through with their dinner all manner of dessert appeared. There were blocks of assorted ice cream, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, and rice pudding. And when they had each had their fill the food and the plates all disappeared.

An old tall beardless man arose from his seat in the centre of the table and walked toward a golden owl crested podium lined with candles, he wore purple robes and a pointed purple hat flecked with gold. The noise died without him having to ask for it. "Thank you." The tall man said to the now silent students, his voice low and booming but strangely not loud. "As most of you know by now, Headmistress McGonagall retired at the end of last year, and appointed me to take her place. For those of you first years who have not met me, my name is Richard Harris. For 19 years I taught Defence Against the Dark Arts here at Hogwarts, and now it is my pleasure to be your Headmaster." Cheers and applause came from all corners of the room and lasted for an entire minute before The Headmaster put up his hands to signal for quiet. "Thank you." He repeated.

"Now, I have some start-of-term announcements to make I send you on your way.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." He smiled at someone seated at the Gryffindor table.

"I have been asked by our caretaker Mr. Wiser, that no magic should be used in the corridors between classes.

"Quidditch trials will take place in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house team should contact Madame Jones.

"Now, I have a just a few changes in staff to report, and you will be free to go." He smiled.

"Professor Flitwick, who has taught Charms at Hogwarts for forty-two years, will be taking my place as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." The Headmaster announced and was swiftly followed by another round of earth shattering applause, coming mainly from the Ravenclaw Table.

_Professor Flitwick was half a man at best,_ Scorpius thought._ How was he supposed to teach them defence?_ The thought confused him, but in the end Scorpius figured he would have a rather easy year in Defence class.

"Settle down." The Headmaster said to the crowd of students with a slight chuckle in his voice. "We have some new Professors joining us this year also, Professor Aaron Clayworth will be teaching Ancient Runes, Professor Katherine Scott will be giving you your Transfiguration lessons, and Professor Luna Lovegood-Scamander will be instructing you in Divination." The crowd clapped respectfully as each professor stood in turn. "Finally," the Headmaster said once more, "Professor Neville Longbottom, has been appointed Head of House Gryffindor and Deputy Headmaster." A thunderous applause came from the left side of the room where the Gryffindors were seated, followed by a tidal wave of cheers that could hardly be contained. The headmaster only smiled and let the Gryffindor's cheer. When all was once again quiet in the Great Hall he continued.

"Now Prefects If you would please escort the first years to their dormitories," A boy and a girl stood up at each table and began rounding up the first years. "Thank you." The Headmaster as he stepped down from the podium.

Scorpius stood up to follow his fellow Slytherin's to the dormitory and he noticed that his robes and trimmed themselves in Slytherin's signature silver and green. He did not stop smiling until he fell asleep.


	6. Albus II

**AN: Part of the second part of this chapter (sorry if that's a little bit confusing) was written by my little sister, and it was actually pretty good so I decided to add it. She loves the story (and loves that I'm writing it) but she said to me after she read it that if I were Albus and she were Lily and I were upset about being sorted into Slytherin that she would write me a letter to make me feel better. So I told her that she should pretend that she were Lily and actually write the letter, and what she wrote was so good that I decided to add it and I'm keeping it exactly as she wrote it (There are a few grammar mistakes like never ever using a comma but I thought it added a layer of authenticity since she and Lily are practically the same age). So I hope you like it as much as I do. Please leave your reviews I'm sure she'd love to read them. :-)**

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"Potter, Albus." Professor Longbottom bellowed and a sudden hush fell over the room. Everyone wanted to know where the newest Potter child would be sorted. The murmuring started as Albus made his way to the stool like so many students before him. Albus glanced briefly up at the cieling of the Great Hall, the moonless sky was pockmarked with a thousand tiny stars. He took his seat like all the other students, Professor Longbottom put the Sorting Hat onto his head, just like all the other students. So why didn't he feel like the other students? Why did he feel this growing sense of dread? He looked out at all the hundreds of students all seated at their long tables, all staring at him. He shut his eyes tight.

When he felt the brim of the sorting hat touch his head all other noises in the room ceased, and he heard a new voice speaking inside his head.

"Oh, another Potter, eh? Hmm, not like the others, no not like them at all. There is yearning in your heart, a need to prove yourself, to step out of your father's shadow. A thirst for... no not power... a thirst for glory. A sharp mind too, very quick on your feet. I see much courage and bravery as well, you would make a fine Gryffindor." The raspy voice of the sorting hat said.

"Yes Gryffindor. Please put me in Gryffindor." Then remembering the words of his father he said, "I want to be in Gryffindor."

"Yes. That much is clear." He said then there was silence. "Yes you could be a great wizard in Gryffindor, a great wizard. Perhaps even greater than your father. But you will not do great things in Gryffindor. Yes you would be powerful, but that is all."

"But I want to be in Gryffindor." Albus protested.

"You might also do well in Ravenclaw, you are not wise per say, but very witty."

"Gryffindor, I want to be in Gryffindor." Albus said again.

"Hufflepuff may be better though. Yes your very loyal, very determined. You could do well there"

"I want to be in Gryffindor." Albus practically shouted.

"But Slytherin, that is the one I believe."

But Albus couldn't hear the hat anymore he was too busy yelling, "Gryffindor. Gryffindor. Gryffindor."

"Albus Potter!" The hat shouted and Albus quieted himself. "If you want to be in Gryffindor, then that is where you will go, but before you make your decision I want you to hear what I have to say." A single tear rolled down from Albus' emerald green eyes.

"You have the power help many people Albus, but you could not do it if you are a Gryffindor. Slytherin Albus. Did you not listen to my song, did you misinterpret its meaning? In Slytherin you can save untold numbers of lives. Dark times are coming Albus, very dark times, and no one person, no one house can stop it. Should you choose Gryffindor, then we are all doomed, but if you choose Slytherin, then we may yet have a chance."

"But I don't want to be sorted into Slytherin." Albus was sobbing uncontrollably now.

"You would let the dark times come, so long as you aren't a Slytherin! You are cowardly and selfish Albus Potter, and unworthy of the house of Godric Gryffindor. But there is one house where your self-preservation would be applauded."

No! Albus thought, the dam of tears had now burst open.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Albus took off the Sorting Hat and handed it back to Professor Longbottom. He walked toward his new peers at the Slytherin table in his new green and silver trimmed robes, they all cheered, he cried. Albus took his seat the the very end of the table. Blinded by tears and deafened by his own sobs, he did not hear or see the rest of the first years who were sorted.

He said I could choose. He said if I still wanted to be in Gryffindor... He said... But Albus' thoughts were interrupted by his heavy sobs. He lied! He tricked me! It's not fair.

There was a loud cheer and much applause and while everyone was distracted Albus stole out of the great hall.

He didn't know how he found himself in the Slytherin dormitory, but he saw his trunk, and his ferret's cage beside his four poster bed, he collapsed on top of it and cried himself to sleep, he didn't dream, for that at least he was thankful.

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Albus had stopped crying after the first night, but he was still unconsolable; outside of his classes Albus hardly left his bed in the Slytherin dormitory, crying and thinking to himself, The Sorting Hat lied. It's not fair. I should be in Gryffindor.

He'd written a letter to his father the next day, telling him all that had happened in his first day.

You said I could choose! You said I wouldn't be sorted into Slytherin if I didn't want to be! Well I was! The Sorting Hat said I was cowardly to pick Gryffindor, that's why it put me in Slytherin. It's not fair! It said I had power, that I could help people if I was sorted into Slytherin, that if I went to Gryffindor I would be powerful, but I couldn't help anybody, what does that mean? Why can't I help people if I'm powerful. I couldn't help anybody anyway, I'm not strong like you. I don't want to stay at Hogwarts anymore. Please don't make me. I could go to Salem Witches or even Beauxbaton, but I don't want to be a Slytherin! Please don't make me!

The letter was tear stained, and far from eloquent, but Albus didn't care.

He got his father's response that same night, in the form of a shining silver stag that spoke with his father's voice.

"Albus, this may be hard for you to hear, I thought it would be easier for you to hear my voice as I said it. You are not a coward. You are my son, and you are brave and you are strong and you are intelligent, and those are the qualities of a good Gryffindor, but they are also the qualities of a good Slytherin. Do you remember what I told you at the train station? Severus Snape, one of the bravest men I have ever met was a Slytherin. He risked his life everyday for seventeen years to keep me safe, and he gave his life for the same reason. You are not defined by the house you were sorted into at Hogwarts. I know it seems bad now Albus. I know it seems like being sorted into Slytherin is the end of the world but it isn't. Things will get better Albus. Things will always get better. I love you."

And with a pop the silver stag vanished into thin air. But the message was of little comfort to Albus. He would still have to spend a year with the slimy and spiteful, sadistic Slytherins.

He found James in the Great Hall the next morning, but he was of little help. He spent most of his time staring at some pretty girl, and when he did manage to take his eyes off of her he only could only offer generic phrases. "Keep your wand up" or, "Don't get your wand in a knot", and if those failed he always resorted to his go to expression, "Life isn't all charms, quidditch and butter beer", Albus hated that expression the most.

It was a light knocking on the door that finally brought Albus out of his head.

"Excuse us." A girl's voice rang from across the room. "You haven't seen our brother have you? His name's Crimsyn Cook? He's a second year."

"Yeah, he's a second year." The other girl said.

Albus looked up at them slowly, though he could hardly see the girls through his welling tears. He shook his head from left to right, and left again, hoping the girls would leave him be.

"Oh have you been crying?" The first girl said awkwardly recovering from her faux pas. "Sorry. What's wrong?" She said as she walked towards him with her sister at her side.

The girls sat down on Albus' bed, and Albus sat up next to them. When he'd wiped the tears away he looked at the two girls for a moment, they were Slytherins about his age, and they each had deep blue eyes, short wavy brown hair and very pointy ears. They were identical, except for a small brown mole above the left eyebrow of the girl closer to him.

"My name's Tamsyn." The girl closest to him beamed. "And this is my sister Wynona."

"Yeah, I'm Wynona." The girl furthest from him said.

"Albus." He muttered.

"Why were you crying Albus?" Tamsyn asked placing her hand lightly on Albus' shoulder to comfort him.

"Yeah why were you crying?" Wynona echoed.

"I..." Albus choked. "I never wanted to be sorted into Slytherin." Albus said hurriedly then paused briefly. "Slytherins are all so mean to everybody, and... and I'm not like that. I don't belong here. It's not fair. It's not fair, I should be in Gryffindor right now. I should. It's not fair, It's..." He had to stop, the tears were beginning to well in his eyes again. "Sorry I... I didn't mean to insult you or anything, just..."

"Not all Slytherins are like that you know." Tamsyn said in a kind voice.

Albus sniffled, not believing it.

"Some of us are just cunning, ambitious and determined. Those aren't bad traits." Tamsyn said in her soft high voice.

"Yeah." Wynona echoed again, her voice was not as soft as her sister's but just as high.

Albus looked up at the two girls and smiled - just slightly. "I guess so." He said.

"I know what will cheer you up!" Tamsyn cried excitedly reaching into a small bag hidden under her robes, and pulled out three Chocolate Frogs. "Chocolate always makes me feel better." She smiled stretching out her arm.

"Yeah, always." Wynona parroted.

"Take one."

Albus unwrapped the Chocolate Frog carefully - he'd learned to open them from the back so they couldn't jump away. He chewed it very deliberately and to his surprise he did start to feel a little better.

"I got Albus Dumbledore. Who'd you get?" Tamsyn asked a moment later when they had all finished eating.

"Oh, uh..." Albus had forgotten all about the card. He peeled back the foil and looking up at him was a face he knew very well. "Harry Potter." He said flatly. He didn't know that his dad had his own Chocolate Frog Card. This was so cool!

"No way!" Tamsyn shouted. "He's super rare, let me see!"

"Yeah let me see." Wynona echoed just as excitedly.

Tamsyn had snatched the card from Albus' hand so fast he hadn't noticed. "Wow." She said her eyes still transfixed on the card.

"Yeah. Wow."

Tamsyn turned the card over and read it out loud. "Harry James Potter, also known as The-Boy-Who-Lived, is perhaps most famous for his defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in 1997, with the help of his friends Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. He is also the only known survivor of the Killing Curse, and in his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry he became the youngest ever Triwizard Champion. Harry Potter is currently serves as the Head Auror for the Ministry of Magic."

She was holding the card up now, looking at Albus, then quickly back at the card. "You know," she began, "you two look a lot alike."

"Yeah, a lot alike."

"Wait. Your Albus Potter aren't you." She was smiling brightly now, affectionately.

"Yeah, your Albus Potter."

Albus gave a small nod and a slightly embarrassed, "Yes." But the girls only smiled at him.

"It's almost supper time, do you want to come down and eat with us?" Tamsyn asked.

"Okay." Albus said, wiping the final tears from his eyes before they could fall. "Thanks."

* * *

Albus felt much better when he awoke the next day, he had two new friends and it made everything in the dark Slytherin dungeons seem a little brighter. He quickly found his glasses, combed his hair (otherwise it looked worse than James' hair), and changed into his robes.

He met Tamsyn and Wynona as they were ascending the stairs and they greeted him with bright smiles.

"Hey Albus." said Tamsyn.

"Yeah, hey Albus." Wynona repeated.

"Hi." Albus smiled. "Most people just call me Al." He told them.

"Al?" Tamsyn puzzled. "Okay Al."

"Yeah, okay." Wynona echoed.

"So where's your brother?" Albus asked.

"Oh, he gets up early to practice his flying. He really wants to play on the quidditch team so he's been practicing ever since dad bought him the broom in July. It was hard to get him to come down sometimes." Tamsyn smiled. "Mum says he spends more time in the air then he does on the ground." She and Wynona laughed, and Albus chuckled along, he was so happy he could laugh at anything.

"What kind of broom does he have?" Albus asked. He loved quidditch, and he loved even more when he flew on the back of his dad's broom.

"He has the new Cleansweep Infinity." Tamsyn told him. Wynona didn't seem interested in the subject enough to even parrot what her sister was saying.

"Really!?" Albus exclaimed. "That's what the Holyhead Harpies are using! My mom played Chaser for them you know." He added.

"Really!?" Tamsyn exclaimed back at him. "I love them they are my absolute _favourite_ team! Do you think you could get me an autograph?" She asked.

They went on talking about quidditch and broomsticks and they soon found themselves outside the Great Hall, where most of the students had already started eating breakfast. They sat at the end of the long Slytherin table almost entirely alone, they seemed to be black sheep within the herd of black sheep, but it was of little concern to them, they had each other and that was good enough.

Albus began piling pancakes onto his plate, alternately spreading jam and maple syrup as the pile grew. What he'd created was surely the finest stack of pancakes ever built, and with a fork, a knife and an abnormally large opening in the middle of his face, he dug in.

He barely noticed when a slightly older and much sweatier boy came and sat down across from him. "You must be Albus Potter." The boy said reaching a hand over Albus' half eaten stack of pancakes.

"Yef." Albus said with his mouth full, he took a hard gulp, let out a breath and said again, "Yes," and shook the boy's hand.

"My name's Crimsyn Cook. I see you've already met my sisters." The boy smiled and brushed a hand through his brown shoulder length and sweat drenched hair. His eyes were a piercing green, almost yellow colour, and he had large groupings of freckles under his eyes.

"So Al," He said, assuming the obvious nickname. "What's it like to be the son of Harry Potter?"

"Oh, uh..." Albus stammered, he'd never thought about it before, it had never been a problem for him like it seemed to be for James. "Normal I guess. He doesn't sit around a fire telling us the story of how he defeated You-Know-Who over and over again if that's what you're thinking. In fact he hardly ever talks about it. I asked him to tell me once, I'd heard the stories people tell but I wanted to hear his version, and he told me it was a very sad story and that he'd rather not talk about it. A lot of his friends died in the fighting. I don't know if he ever told anyone what really happened that night." Albus said placidly.

"Oh." Crimsyn said clearly a little disappointed.

There was a silence after that but it didn't last long. Hundreds of owls swooped into the great hall dropping off letters and parcels, some snagging a piece of bacon or two before leaving again. In the cloud of feathers Albus spotted Echo their family owl as he landed right where Albus' stack of pancakes had been a while ago. Echo dropped the letter onto Albus' lap and gave him a mortified look when he noticed that his taloned feet were covered in sticky jam and syrup. He swung around, slapping Albus in the face with one of his great grey wings and flew off with the rest of the owls.

Albus stared down at the letter, thinking it would be from his father or maybe his mother, but he was surprised to see his sister Lily's almost passable handwriting. He opened it eagerly and read it in silence.

_Hi, Albus. I miss you a whole bunch. Dad said you were sorted into Slytherin I'm sorry. I know James is always saying how bad Slytherin is but I really don't think it can be that bad. We were at Aunt Hermione's when we got your letter and I asked her if all Slytherins were bad and she said let's find out together. She brought me into a room at the very back of their house we had to walk down a long hallway first and down some stairs and the room was full of books right to the ceiling in giant bookcases. She took down a few big dusty ones and set them on this huge desk in the middle of the room. She opened one of the books I forget what it was called and she transfigured us two chairs she did mine too short though so I had to kneel on it to see. She started turning the pages really fast then she stopped and there was a picture of an old man but he didn't move like our pictures do. I asked Aunt Hermione why he couldn't move and she told me that the magic hadn't been invented yet. She said that this was Merlin, the most famous and powerful wizard ever she said that he was a Slytherin and that he spent his whole life trying to protect an entire kingdom of muggles. So if he loved muggles he couldn't have been evil right? She turned some more pages and stopped again on a page with a smaller picture of a young woman she was smiling and had her arm around another girl's shoulder. Aunt Hermione said that this was Freida Elvendork and that she died during Grindelwald's War protecting her muggle neighbors. She turned a couple of pages backwards and stopped at a really evil looking man with one big eyebrow instead of two. She said he was the man who invented on of the unforgivable curses the cruciatus curse. He was a Gryffindor Albus so it's not just the Slytherins who are bad. Then she opened a new book it was a lot smaller and newer but it was still really thick on the cover it said Hogwarts: a History Aunt Hermione said that it was the most recent copy. She turned to a section labeled Headmasters and opened the page to a picture of an angry looking man with greasy black hair and a hooked nose she said his name was Severus Snape and that he had kept her our dad and Uncle Ron safe while they were at Hogwarts. So it's not all Slytherins that are bad just the bad ones and your not one of the bad ones Al your a good one! I'm still sorry you didn't get into Gryffindor though. I've been thinking about it a lot and I don't think I want to be sorted into Slytherin or Gryffindor I think I'd rather be in Hufflepuff they seem really nice. Bye Al see you at christmas time._

Albus smiled to himself. He never expected Lily to write to him. She was right of course, there were good Slytherins, and there were bad Gryffindors too, he'd never thought of that before. He wanted to do good, he wanted to prove to himself and to the Sorting Hat that he wasn't sorted into Slytherin because he was a coward, but because he had great ambition and determination, just like Merlin, Freida and Severus. He was going to be the greatest Slytherin ever!


	7. Rose II

**AN: Thanks to VesperLogan12 and Moon Lantern for reviewing!**

**Some more cameos, this time in the form of books. :-)**

**If you're reading this let me know that writing this is worth my time and leave a review, I love reading them!**

* * *

"Mendel Madgrowler's Mushroom Manual." Rose read the book title aloud.

_No_. Her brain answered.

"Fenton Fletcher: A Tale of a Quidditch Champion." She read out another title.

_No._ Her brain responded again.

"Vesper Logan, The Blood that Binds Us: A Thorough Explanation of Blood Purity. Theodore Thatcher's Thousand and Three ways to cook Thunderbugs. Montgomery Lantern, The Light in the Darkness. Her Black Grace: A window Into the Life of the First Dark Witch Morgan le Fay, Liora Trebleton. Explaining Everything and Nothing: A Useful Useless Book, Fred and George Weasley."

_No! No! No! No! No!_

"This is useless." Rose said defeated, still browsing through the books - that appeared to be in no order whatsoever - on one of the giant shelves in the Library.

"Calm down Rose." One of the boys called from behind a stack of books that was taller than he was.

"You're overthinking this whole thing." The other boy said from behind a second stack of books that was slightly shorter, so Rose could just see the top of his head.

She still couldn't tell the boys apart, not by their appearance or their voices, but Larcon usually spoke first so it wasn't too difficult to figure out who was who - except when Lysannder spoke first. The boys had become her shadows ever since they first met on the train, the only time Rose had to herself anymore was when she was when she slept and when she showered. But she didn't mind it. It was nice knowing they were there.

"You need to relax." The other boy - Larcon she assumed - picked up.

"I can't relax._ I'm failing two classes._ Don't you understand?" Rose snapped.

"Yes, bu-"

"Please be quiet Lysannder." She said in an apologetic tone.

"I'm Larcon." He called back.

"Sorry." Rose replied. "Have you found anything?"

"No. Nothing yet." Lysannder answered for his brother.

The pressure was starting to get to Rose, the idea that she_ might_ fail_ two_ of her classes was unacceptable to her (one was unacceptable, but two was _doubly_ unacceptable). Especially when one of those classes was as useless as 'Divination', Rose didn't even know why it was taught at Hogwarts, less than one percent of Wizards could actually interpret the signs - the rest just faked it well enough to pass their Divination N.E.W.T.S. But Rose was also failing Defence Against the Dark Arts, and that was something she was much more concerned with. The boys had tried to teach her how to do the disarming spells, but they hardly knew how to do them themselves. They'd come to the library every day for the past week to find a book that would help them somehow, but so far they hadn't found anything useful.

"Urgh." Rose groaned as she walked towards the boys. She threw four books from Lysannder's pile onto the ground and transfigured them into a table and three chairs, then she turned back towards the stacks of books, _"Depulso."_ Rose said with a flick of her wand, and the books floated back onto the shelves. She may have be failing Divination and Defence, but she was beyond her years in Charms and Transfiguration.

Rose slumped down in one of the transfigured chairs, and stared up at the the two blonde haired boys. "We've checked half the library already." she stated glumly. "How have we not found anything?" Her question was rhetorical but the boys answered anyway.

"Maybe we were looking in the wrong half." Larcon said - at least she thought it was Larcon, she'd lost track again.

Rose gave a laugh and a half smile. It was possible, she reasoned, that they had been looking in the wrong side - however unlikely. "Alright," She conceded, "I'll start at the front stack and you two do your thing." Larcon and Lysannder didn't browse through books like normal people, they would take books off the shelves by the dozens and look through them one by one. Rose wasn't even sure where they found the books because when she would cast the banishing charm on the book they flew off in a direction away from the overly large shelves.

* * *

She must have spent_ hours_ combing through_ thousands_ of books, and the most useful book she'd found was Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. As she put yet another useless book back on the shelf, the utter silence of the library was broken. "Rose! Rose, we've found something come here quick!" Larcon and Lysannder sang out in unison. A quick shush from Madame Hill, the heavy-set librarian, came soon after.

Rose turned and ran towards the back of the library through row upon row of bookshelves. When she got to the back of the library she didn't see them there, in fact she didn't see anything there, just a pile of books, the table she transfigured and three more books where the transfigured chairs used to be, and a door on the far left side of the room.

"Back here!" One of the boys called.

Rose slowly opened the door and stepped into the room. When she closed the door behind her all the evening sunlight that had filled the library was gone, the only light now was the glow of a_ Lumos_ spell that shone through the ancient bookshelves. _"Lumos."_ She whispered, and her light joined the others. When she turned the corner she saw the two boys hunched over a small table, reading from a large ancient tome.

The book was bound in aged and tired leather, with ornate gold work that - besides the thick coating of dust - looked brand new. Etched into the gold was some sort of text that Rose couldn't make out. "What does it say?" She asked.

"I don't know." One of the boys said.

"But look at this." The other one continued as he opened the book to a random page in the middle.

"It's blank." The first boy continued.

"Every single page." The other finished.

Puzzled, Rose stared at the book for a moment and began to slowly turn the faded orange pages. "Did you try the revealing charm?" She asked the boys, who shook their heads no. Rose closed the ancient book and held her wand over it, she tapped the book three times and waved her wand over it, _"Aparecium."_ She said with confidence, but when she opened the book again nothing had changed.

"Why didn't it work?" One of the boys asked disappointed.

"The spell can only overcome basic concealing charms." Rose answered.

"Do you know any others?"

"No." Rose sighed. "But there is a book!" Before she could finish the thought, and before the boys could ask her what she meant Rose had bounded out the door. Running as quickly as she could came to a bookshelf in the middle of the library, She'd forgotten the exact location of the book but it was important enough that she'd made a mental note of where it was incase she needed to find it again, she knew it was somewhere in the third row of this bookshelf. Once she found the book she ran back to the hidden room and shut the door tightly behind her. "Here." She said walking back into view of the two boys. "Charmed, I'm Sure. By Albus Dumbledore." Rose eagerly leapt through the one thousand plus pages of the book, looking for a more powerful revealing charm.

"Anything?" One of the boys asked from behind her - Lysannder she thought.

It had been only ten minutes but Rose had skimmed through most of the book already. "No." She sighed. "Nothing."

"Well, what about a translation charm? For the cover text."

"Yeah!" Rose almost shouted. "I remember seeing something like that," she beam as she furiously flipped the pages backwards. "Ahhhh... Here!" Rose put the charms book onto an empty space on the bookshelf, and slid the ancient tome toward herself. She moved her wand across the words and spoke the charm, _"Vertalentis English."_ When she'd finished the words floated off off the book and hovered in the air. The words began to twist and contort and when they had finished moving, Rose, Larcon and Lysannder all read the words together.

"The Secrets of the Darkest Art."

"What does it mean?" The boy on Rose's left said.

"I'm not sure." She admitted. "But it's probably not something we should be messing with. It's not something any student should even be near! Where are we anyway? Is this the Restricted Section? How did you two get the door unlocked?" Rose asked nervously. Not only was she failing two classes but now she was breaking the school rules and it was only the third week.

_Click._

"What was that?" Rose snapped.

"There's..." One of the boys began nervously. "There's two locking pins on the spine." He whimpered.

Rose Walked back to the table and examined the book. The spine wasn't a spine at all, it was some sort of lock. She knew it was against the rules, and she knew she would likely be expelled if anyone found out what she was about to do, but her curiosity got the better of her. She _had_ to know.

There were 2 more locking pins on the other side of the spine, she quickly pulled them out and slowly slid the golden spine out of its place. She lifted the cover off of the book and the papers were lifted off as well, as if the cover and the pages were one entity. When she looked down again there was only a plain wooden box resting on the back cover of the book.

Rose placed her right hand onto the box and exhaled, taking a moment to pause before she opened the box. Slowly she lifted the lid and eerily the box made no sound. It somehow made the whole thing worse, Rose thought. Inside the box was a large dark sapphire pendant, in an elegant silver frame, on a long and simple silver chain.

"What is it?" One boy asked.

"I don't know." Rose responded. She had no clue what to make of it, all of this elaborate hiding for a pendant? Why? She asked herself.

Rose put the chain gently around her neck, the pendant resting near her navel. She suddening felt a warmth flow through her body, it made her fingers tremble and her heart race. She was scared she didn't know what this feeling was, was it the rush of doing something wrong, or did it have something to do with the necklace? The warmth turned into a throbbing pain, and her excitement turned into terror. What was this? she thought as the pain became more and more unbearable. In a second she was doubled over on the ground screaming in pain, but not a moment later the pain was gone entirely.

_"WHAT WAS THAT!"_ She screamed as she threw the necklace across the room.

_Hello._


	8. Albus III

**AN: Thanks to Moon Lantern, VesperLogan12 and Barr Brother for reviewing.**

* * *

Albus scuffed his feet as he moved through the hallways and down the stair that lead to the potions classroom deep in the Slytherin dungeons. Thankfully he only had to suffer through potions class twice a week,_ It won't be so bad now that I've got friends._ He thought, even though they don't sit anywhere near each other in class.

And as if thinking of them had made them appear, Tamsyn and Wynona rushed up behind him each girl taking one of his arms and tangling it in their own. "Hey Alby!" Tamsyn teased.

"Yeah, hey Alby!" Wynona echoed.

Some of the Slytherins had started calling him 'Alby', and 'Little Alby Potter' when they really wanted to make fun of him. Albus hated it, but Tamsyn thought it was cute, and it always Wynona laugh so the name unfortunately stuck.

"Hey." Albus smiled, his mood instantly brightened.

"Don't doddle Alby, you'll make us late." Tamsyn smiled.

"Yeah, don't doddle Alby." Wynona echoed again.

Albus picked up the pace and in seemingly no time, they were deep in the Slytherin dungeons where potions classes was held. They each took the seats that Professor Slughorn had assigned to them on the first day, Tamsyn sat with Gregory Goyle while Wynona was with Rose Weasley, Sebastian Mastaillos was next to the doe eyed Lauri Meadows, Lysannder Scamander and Mitchell Hurley sat together, and his brother Larcon Scamander sat next to Clare Finch-Fletchley, Blaise Zabini Jr. and Amanda Carmine, and some people whose names Albus hadn't learned yet sat next to some other people whose names Albus also had yet to learn. Finally, Albus was stuck in the front row with the pointy-faced Scorpius Malfoy. The Professor told them they were 'Matched with the people they were most dissimilar too, in the hope that each might learn something from the other.' Albus had tried during the first week, to get Professor Slughorn to change the seats but Slughorn refused every time, 'If you don't like it, I'm afraid you'll just have to grit your teeth.' Slughorn had said.

So here Albus was, gritting his teeth, as he reluctantly let go of the arms of his friends, and took his seat next to Scorpius Malfoy.

"Hey." Albus reluctantly grunted as he plopped his hardly opened potions textbook onto the shared desk, narrowly avoiding the cast iron potion pot. Scorpius made a low unintelligible noise in response. The pair - as well as the rest of the class - sat silently, eagerly awaiting the professor's arrival to break the awkward silences that hung over each desk.

They soon got their wish as the feeble Professor Slughorn waddled into the room, leaning heavily on his wooden cane. He wore deep purple robes that seemed to dance around him as he walked - not a fast dance, but a slow and elegant waltz. It was almost sad to see him, an old man well into his winter years, but the bright eagerness of his ocean blue eyes said he still had a few good years left. "H-Hello class." He coughed.

"Hello Professor Slughorn." The classroom chorused.

The smile enveloped the old professor's face slowly, he loved to teach it was obvious. "Will everyone please turn their books to page... uh..." He looked down at his notes. "Ah yes. Page 27 please. Today we will be learning to brew the Wiggenweld Potion. Now," the professor paused for a moment. "The brewing of this potion is quite the laborious task, 'Such is the nature of potion making.' I guess you could say. But nevertheless I want you _all_ working in pairs on this." There was a general groan from the class that came from all sides. "Now, now. No complaining. I would like us to finish this in an hour, so get started. You will find all the ingredients you need in the pantry." Professor Slughorn said as he gestured toward the large white pantry at the back of the room. The first pair to finish will be awarded 50 House Points, each."

Most of the student ran with their books to the pantry right away - some even ran without their books and had to run back to their desks to get them - but Albus remained at his desk and read over the list of ingredients needed to brew the Wiggenweld Potion.

_The Wiggenweld Potion_

_Ingredients_

_One pint of Horklumpjuice_

_Flobberworn Mucus_

_7 Chizpurfle Fangs_

_Billywig Sting slime_

_A sprig of Mint_

_Boom Berry Juice_

_One Stewed Mandrake_

_Honeywater_

_Sloth Brain Mucus_

_Moondew_

_Salamander Blood_

_Ten Lionfish Spines_

_Unicorn Hair_

_Wolfbane_

When he felt that he had successfully memorized the list - and once the other students had returned to their seats - he made his way to the pantry, with Scorpius following slowly behind. They managed to get everything they needed in one trip except for the Honeywater, which Albus went back to get after Scorpius scoffed at him when Albus asked him to get it. The pair laid out the ingredients on their desk in the order they would be needing them.

"Alright," Albus began. 'The first thing we need to do is bring the Horklumpjuice to a boil." Albus smiled doing his best to stay positive.

"No, the first thing we need to do is start a fire under the cauldron." Scorpius corrected. "Filthy half-blood." Scorpius muttered under his breath loud enough that Albus could hear.

"Not if we use a boiling charm." Albus corrected this time, as he poured the Horklumpjuice into the cauldron and took out his wand. "Aqua F-"

"STOP!" Scorpius shouted. "You can't use a boiling charm on a potion! A potion is magic, if you cast a charm or a spell on it magnifies the intensity of the potion. Do you know what happens then!?" Scorpius barked, his rage had turned his pale milky face beet red.

Albus shook his head,

"It blows up!" Scorpius' face had turned even more red now,

"Oh." Albus said embarrassed.

" 'Oh!' That's all you can say for yourself, 'Oh!' You stupid arrogan-" There was a vein beginning to bulge on Scorpius' forehead.

"Alright, alright, That is quite enough." Professor Slughorn began as he slowly rose from his desk. "Yes Scorpius it is true that casting a spell onto a potion is normally a bad idea, but this isn't a potion. Right now this is just Horklumpjuice. Now," He paused in front of their shared desk. "I will see both of you in my office after class." He began to walk back toward his desk. "Oh yes, and ten points from Slytherin."

The two boys sat silently at their table for a moment, their raw hatred of each other convulsing in the space between them. Albus was the first to move in their unofficial game of chicken, he took the second ingredient - Billywig Sting Slime - and added to the Horklumpjuice. Then Scorpius made his move by lighting a fire underneath their caldron and adding the 7 Chizpurfle Fangs. Albus stirred the potion until it turned a light blue colour, then Scorpius dropped in their Stewed Mandrak along with a dash of Salamander Blood. Albus continued stirring, this time the potion turned a deep emerald green colour. Scorpius added the Sprig of Mint and the Boom Berry Juice, but by then it was too late, from the other side of the room the cry of. "We did it!" exploded into the - for the most part - silent room.

It was - no surprise - Rose Weasley and Wynona Cook. Albus gave a curt smile to his friends new and old, and set back to work on his own potion. He turned the page to see the rest of the instructions and his jaw almost hit the floor, the instructions went on for eight more pages.

* * *

"You boys made quite a ruckus earlier today. Why don't you tell me what that was all about." Professor Slughorn asked looking down at the two boys from behind his overly large desk. Albus had been expecting a scolding, but Professor Slughorn's calm tone surprised him.

"He was going to blow up the potion and half the class along with it!" Scorpius barked. He didn't feel that he belonged here In Slughorn's office, being punished for something that wasn't his fault.

"I will not be spoken to in that tone young man is that clear?" The stern scolding tone Albus had been expecting was starting to come through now.

"Yes professor. Sorry professor." Scorpius almost whimpered. The rosey red glow of embarrassment was beginning to show on his cheeks.

"Now," Slughorn began, with the calm tone restored to his voice. "I've been closely observing you boys, and you two, unlike all my other students, in all the years I teach, and all the students I have ever taught,_ you two_ seem the least willing to learn from each other, to work with each other, or to even sit next to each other. Now this only leads me to one conclusion. The potential friendship that could have existed between you two, was soured by an early encounter. Am I on the right track?" He asked leaning over his desk to look at the boys. Neither Albus nor Scorpius dared to make eye contact with the professor or each other. "I thought so." Slughorn affirmed as he slowly stood up from his desk, heavily stressing his cane with each step. "Boy's ahh... How to put this?" He contemplated, he was standing between the two now. "I am a hundred and six years old, and in that time I like to think I learned a thing or two. And on thing I have learned is that hate corrupts the soul. It is a poison that steals every good thing in your life, and leaves you to cry yourself to sleep each night, all alone, and scared. And it is not a thing that I would wish on my worst enemy, let alone two bright, and promising young students." You could almost hear the catch in his throat and see the tears in his eyes as he spoke, but if they were there he kept them hidden.

"Now. Whatever has transpired between the two of you, I want you to forgive each other. It may sound easy to do, but it is a hard thing to forgive your enemy. Fighting is easy, to hurt someone is a very simple thing, but to forgive someone who has wronged you... It is a truly _magical_ thing." Slughorn comforted.

Both boys sat in complete silence as they thought about what Professor Slughorn had said. Albus was the first to move.

He stood up from the hard wooden chair. "I forgive you." He said extending his hand to Scorpius who stared at the boys hand for a moment.

"I haven't done anything wrong!" Scorpius shouted, slapping Albus' hand away and bolting out of the room.

Albus stood stunned for a moment, before Professor Slughorn put a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright. You did what you could, the rest is up to him. Hopefully he'll make the right decision eventually."

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**AN: Thanks to everybody for reading, and if you like this story please let me know by leaving your reviews. The next chapter should be up before the end of May. Sorry to anyone who is eagerly awaiting the next Rose chapter but I've got to write another James chapter first. Don't worry though, you always see roses in June ;-)**


	9. Alice

**Author's Note:**

**Thanks to Moon Lantern, Vesper Logan 12, HolyHeraHazel, Barr Brother, sabrina-luna-potter, GracieStar123, Katy and the guest for reviewing. I love all of you for reading and reviewing my story, without you guys I probably would have given up a while ago.**

**Congradulations to VesperLogan12 and HolyHeraHazel for winning the contest. You can look for Vesper's character Gwendolyn (Gwen) Cornish in this chapter.**

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It was a brisk September afternoon, and the first signs of autumn were all around. The leaves had been magically collected into small mounds on the ground, are buffeted by passing breezes setting them free once more. The sun was high in the sky and, unfettered by the clouds, it cast its own dignified image onto the opaque waters of Black Lake. All the while, a storm is brewing towards the west.

On the bank of the lake, Alice Longbottom, sits with her two best friends, discussing - of all things - the magical properties of dittany stalks.

"They used to be used to make wands you know." Alice said fervently as she tossed her shoulder length hair back. Like her father she had an obsession with Herbology. She loved it. It was the only class she knew she would do well in - and not just because her father was the teacher. Her friends though were less than enthused about the subject.

"Great," sighed Molly. Her thick glasses were nearly falling off her face, and a single stand of her long, wavy brown hair swayed back and forth. "So what did you think about our first potions lesson?"

"The essence of dittany can even be used to treat all kinds of wounds." Alice continued.

"Not bad," Gwen almost yawned. She was using the 'Wingardium Leviosa' charm to move small rocks so that they would spell out her name. "Professor Slughorn's kind of old don't you think. Maybe he should retire." She brushed her dark auburn hair back and gave a short smile at Molly, who had begun to use the same charm to move a much larger rock out of the way.

"It's also known as the 'burning bush' because occasionally it will release flammable vapours into the air." Alice continued to drone on and on about all of the magical properties of dittany, but Molly and Gwen were no longer listening.

"I can't wait for our first defence against the dark arts lesson can you?" Molly asked but continued on without an answer. "I heard some seventh years talking about their first lesson, they said that Flitwick began with sparring matches. Do you think he'll do that with us too?"

"I doubt it." Gwen shrugged. "We don't even know any spells yet."

"You might not," Molly smiled, "but I do. Watch." Then she took out her wand and pointed it at a bird flying over head. _"Immobulus!"_ She shouted, and the bird froze in mid air.

Alice had stopped blabbering on now, and was looking up at the bird in stunned silence.

"Wow." Gwen breathed, as all three girls watched the bird slowly begin to move again, continuing on its path as if it had never been hit by the spell.

"Nice trick." A snide voice said from behind.

All three girls whipped around at once to see who had spoken. Molly, had her chestnut wand pointed directly at the face of the speaker, a girl she had already come to hate in her short time at Hogwarts, Katherine Goyle, along with her two friends, Grace Rosier, and Penelope Parkinson.

"Put that down Weasley." Katherine snapped, turning her pointed nose up into the air. "How dare you point your wand at me." The two girls who stood behind Katherine, now stepped forward, in an attempt to scare Molly.

Molly did not move. Instead she remained perfectly calm, with her still pointed at Katherine's smug face, and shouted _"Immobu-"_

But before she could get the words out, the blonde girl, Grace, had disarmed her.

Gwen pointed her own wand at the girls, but one of them roared,_ "Expelliarmus!"_ before she could even aim.

Molly and Gwen looked at each other now, each with fear and sadness in their eyes, both their wands were now floating in the Black Lake.

"Not so tough now are you?" Penelope Parkinson laughed as she pointed her wand at Alice.

"Please," Alice said, "I don't even have my wand with me. It's still on my bed."

"Here that?" Katherine laughed. "Poor little Longbottom can't even remember her wand."

"Leave her alone!" Gwen shouted. She picked up one of the small rocks from the ground and threw it at the three Slytherin girls, striking Penelope Parkinson in the side if the head.

"You'll pay for that you filthy mudblood!" Penelope roared, then with her wand pointed square at Gwen's face, she yelled _"Stupify!"_

"Don't call her that!" Molly shouted. But before she could say anything else she too had been stunned. Both girls were now face first in the black mud of Black Lake.

"You're next." Katherine hissed at Alice.

But then Alice did something very strange. She pointed the dittany stalk at the three Slytherin girls, and with all the magical strength she could manage, she yelled, _"Incenerago!"_ An explosion of fire burst out of the tip of the dittany stalk, and set the three girl's hair and uniforms on fire.

Screaming all three of them ran past Alice, and into the Black Lake.

Alice, along with Molly and Gwen who had rejoined their friend in victory, were all bent over laughing as one by one, Katherine Goyle, Penelope Parkinson and Grace Rosier all walked out of the Black Lake, their green Slytherin uniforms covered in scorch marks and mud, and all of them nearly bald.


	10. James II

**AN: ****A big big BIG Thank You to Moon Lantern, VesperLogan12, Barr Brother and noelle95. You guys rock! Please If you like the story, leave your review, let your friends know, mention it in your blog, tweet it, post it on Facebook, spread the word. Love you guys! :-)**

**Also I think I should mention that this is only the first draft of this story, and it is clearly not all that it could be yet. So, at the end of June once ACT 2 is finished, I'm going to start editing, revising and just making the story a whole lot better in general. And since a lot of the time that I would usually spend writing this story will now be focused on revising it, new chapter will slow to one per month if not stop altogether. But luckily revising is only planned to be two months (July & August) maximum so in the fall we'll be back on track. **

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James woke begrudgingly to the sound of his friends Louis and Fred, setting of another Exploding Whizz Popper. The pair had become the unofficial alarm clock of all the Gryffindor third years, waking them up each morning with a plethora of exploding fireworks they purchased secretly at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He left the warm embrace of his covers and found a pair of robes next to his bed, after a seconds deliberation on whether or not they were clean enough to wear (disregarding the fact that he was fairly certain he had tossed his robes into the hamper when he took them off for bed last night) he threw them on over his head and began to search for a tie.

He made his way down to the Great Hall with Louis and Fred by his side laughing as they descended the stairs. "Did you see the look on Alton's face when that Whizz Poper blew up right next to his head? I thought he might'a wet the bed!" Louis smiled broadly.

"Or when Erney thought he'd be able to jump over that one." Fred could hardly speak from laughing so hard. "It was too funny!"

"Worth every knut." James agreed as they turned down the hallway that led from Gryffindor tower to the Great Hall.

"Knut!?" Louis said offended. "You can't get that kinda value for a knut! They were a sickle each and that was with our pranksters discount!"

There was a moment of silence Where Louis and Fred stared daggers at James before all three of them burst into laughter.

As they approached the entrance to the great hall they could already hear the murmuring of students, the clanks of utensils striking plates and the occasional loud gasp or fit of laughter. The doors were already wide open as the entered and took their seats near the far end of the Gryffindor table.

"So what's first today Fred?" Louis asked as they all dug into large plates of pancakes that had appeared before them when they sat down.

"History of Magic." Fred said in a glum voice. There was a loud moan that seemed to come from all three of them at the same time.

"So boring." Louis complained.

"All he does is talk about goblin wars." James groaned.

"We've got a whole bunch of nosebleed nugar in the dormitory." Fred began. "Just show up for a moment then we could all leave."

"Won't it look just a _tad_ suspicious if we all get nosebleeds at the same time?" James asked sarcastically.

"Yeah guess you're right." said Fred through a mouth full of pancakes.

"Think we should at least show up for one of his classes anyway." James added.

"Yeah." Louis said in a defeated voice. "Can we skip divination then?"

"Don't we always?" James laughed and the other two joined in.

"You'd think if she really could see into the future then she'd know we weren't going to show up." Fred said and they all roared with laughter again.

Once they'd finished their stacks of pancakes, large amounts of eggs and bacon appeared on their plates. Louis and Fred eagerly devoured them with such ferocity you would think they hadn't eaten in weeks. But James sat with his fork in his hand, staring across the hall at the girl he had seen on the train. Her opalescent eyes glimmering in the nearly real sunlight that shone down from the bewitched ceiling, the black and white halves of her hair emanating a magnificent aura that seemed to cradle her soft face._ Or maybe it was tunnel vision._ James thought when he realized he was staring. She did not look at all happy, but curiously she didn't seemed to be sad either, sort of like she was stuck in between. She glanced up at him for a brief second and a smile flickered across her face before she looked away.

"Whatcha starin' at mate?" Fred said as he gulped down a mouthful of food.

"Wha?" James stumbled as he realized he'd been caught again and hastened to look away, to look at anything else. "Oh a- nothing."

He brought his eyes back to the spot where she had been sitting a moment later but she was no longer there.

"No really," Fred said again. "What are you looking at?"

"Tryna find my brother." He thought up quickly.

"He's down there at the other end of the table." Louis informed them pointing his hand diagonally across the hall.

"Oh yeah." James said as he took in his brother for a moment, eating at the very edge of the table and talking with two twin girls.

"Looks like he's found himself a girlfriend already." Fred said giving James a nudge with his elbow.

"Looks like he's got himself _two_ girlfriends." Louis piled on.

"Maybe you should ask him for some tips." Fred said then he and Louis burst into laughter so loud it caused half the hall to look at them.

James brooded for a moment before giving a slight smile at his little brother, glad that he had finally found a place at Hogwarts, even if it was amongst the Slytherins.

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**AN: Thank you for reading, if you like this chapter please leave your review, let me know what stuck out at you, say hello or just bump, and if you didn't like it leave your review as well, let me know why you didn't like it and I'll work on fixing the problem.**


	11. Scorpius II

**AN: A HUGE Thank You to Moon Lantern, vesperlogan12, Barr Brother and the guest for reviewing the last chapter. (It's gonna be funny if this story ever has 20 reviews per chapter, but rest assured I WILL Thank everyone who reviews!)**

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Scorpius was alone in the long and narrow Slytherin common room, sitting in a large overstuffed chair, and working on his charms essay by wandlight. Many of this Slytherins prefered to work by wand light in the common because the light from the green flames made it hard to see what you were doing.

Just as he dipped his quill back into his ink bottle he heard voices coming up the stairs from the boys dormitory at the other end of the room.

"Did you 'ear about that mudblood girl? The one who-" Scorpius could hear one of the boys saying.

"What is your fascination with_ mudbloods?_" The other one snapped back.

"Filth." Another scoffed.

"I know, I know. I was saying she beat Finch in a duel yesterday. Finch got mad at her for some reason - I don't know why cause he's still in the hospital wing - but he challenged her to a duel and she beat him, _bad_."

"She must have cheated somehow." The third voice said again.

"Scorpius was finding it very hard to concentrate. He'd only come out here because it was late and he knew it would be deserted, but if these three were gonna be here long he might as well go back to his dormitory.

"Who's that?" One of the voices said quickly.

"I dunno some first year. But listen-"

"Shut up Nott!" The third boys snapped again. "That's not 'some first year' that's the Malfoy boy."

Scorpius gulped, something about the boys tone made Scorpius think that this might not end well for him.

"Lil' firsty in love with the mudbloods and the blood traitors."

"I am not!" Scorpius roared defiantly, but he knew when he did it that he had only made things worse for himself.

The three boys were walking closer now and Scorpius could tell who they were. The large one in the middle was his cousin Arcturus Black, his two solid black eyes absorbed all the light in the room making them look almost like holes in his head, and his right ear was pierced with six silver earrings - one for every person he'd beaten in a duel (Arcturus loved to brag about them at family gatherings). He did not recognize the two cronies who flanked him, but he thought the one on the left might have been the brother of Blaise Zabini.

"I 'eard ya wern't playin' nice wit da other ickle firsties, dat true blondey?" Arcturus mocked as he and his two cronies barked with laughter.

"My name is Scorpius!" He shouted back defiantly. "Scorpius_ Malfoy!_ And you will address me with respect!" He stared up at the three boys who were positively towering over him so high they blocked out all the light of the common room. But he would not back down. Scorpius reared himself up to his full height, which admittedly didn't help much since all three boys were at least a foot taller than him, and stared at them unblinking, which only made Arcturus laugh harder.

The pudgy black boy on Arcturus' right reached out a long arm and grabbed Scorpius by the scruff of his robes. He reached down into his pocket looking for his wand, but before he could use it Arcturus already had his drawn. _"Expelliarmus."_ He said lazily, and his friends all laughed.

"Wut you gonna do now ickle firsty?"

"I TOLD YOU! MY NAME IS SCORPIUS!" Scorpius screamed as loud as he he could and swung his first blindly through the air catching Arcturus square in the face. Arcturus bent double, and clutched what Scorpius was almost sure was a broken nose, and a wry smile came across Scorpius' face.

"You think that's funny do ya?" The pudgy black boy holding him asked.

"No." Arcturus stopped his two friends from pulling out their wands as he stood up. "Put him down, and give him his wand." The other boys looked at him confused and so did Scorpius. "He clearly wants to fight me," It was Arcturus who smiled this time, it was a very unnerving smile not helped at all by his now crooked nose and the blood running down his face, he looked dangerous in the wash of green light. "So we're going to have a duel. Now pick up your wand." He barked the last words, and the boy holding Scorpius in the air let him drop.

Scorpius picked up his wand and straightened himself. He knew he had no chance of winning the duel. But he knew it would be so much worse if he didn't at least try.

"Good." Arcturus smiled again and Scorpius gulped nervously. "Now we're supposed to bow before a duel, but we'll just pretend we did that. Ready?" Arcturus asked, but without waiting for Scorpius to reply he fired his first spell.

_"Stupefy!"_ He shouted and a jet of red light hit Scorpius and sent him crashing into the wall at the other end of the long common room. He heard their laughter as he slowly got back to his feet but before he could manage to point his wand he was disarmed again. He jumped behind the large green chair where his wand had landed.

_"Bombarda."_ Scorpius heard Arcturus say a split second before the chair he was cowering behind exploded sending shards of wood all across the common room, one especially large piece lodged itself in Scorpius' thigh. He gave a shout of pain, but before he could wrench the shrapnel from his thigh Arcturus had fired another spell.

_"Levicorpus."_ Arcturus said and Scorpius was hoisted into the air by his ankle. _"Liberacorpus."_ He said a moment later and Scorpius fell five feet onto his head and shoulder. The three of them were now laughing so hard they didn't see Scorpius get to his feet.

_"Carpe Retractum!"_ Scorpius shouted. He'd aimed the curse at Arcturus, but it had hit one of the cronies. The rope that shot out of Scorpius' wand wrapped around its victims neck and pulled him face first into the ground.

_"Everte Statum!"_ Arcturus bellowed and Scorpius was sent careening into the wall.

_"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!_" Scorpius heard a different voice roar before he slipped out of consciousness.

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"Scorpius." A soft soothing voice rang through the air. "Scorpius dear, it's time to wake up."

With considerable effort Scorpius opened his eyes to see a pretty blonde haired nurse wearing pearl white robes, who could have only been out of Hogwarts for a couple of years if in fact she had left at all.

"Whe-" Scorpius began as he sat up. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"You're in the hospital wing, and I'm Victoire Weasley, Madam Chaussette's aid. You were in a fight with some other boys. Do you remember any of that?" She asked kindly.

"Yeah." Scorpius said sourly. "And I lost. Bad."

"Well you weren't seriously hurt that's the important thing. You had a cracked rib and a pretty nasty cut on your thigh, but we took care of it no problem." She beamed at him.

Scorpius gave a grunt, and Victoire smiled at him one last time before walking away.

"Do you know who it was that finally saved me?" He called after her.

"Albus Potter."

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**AN: Thank you for reading, if you like this chapter please leave your review, let me know what stuck out at you, say hello or just bump, and if you didn't like it leave your review as well, let me know why you didn't like it and I'll work on fixing the problem.**


	12. Rose III

**AN: Thank you to the guest, sabrina-luna-potter, Barr Brother, Moon Lantern, VesperLogan12 for reviewing, and a very special thank you to HolyHeraHazel who reviewed all nine chapters since the last time I updated. Love you guys.**

**BTW you should all check out HolyHeraHazel's fic "Return To Hogwarts" a next generation story from Scorpius' point of view, that is full of humor and great sparks of imagination.**

**Now, unfortunately, this will be the last chapter for a little while. As some of you know I will be spending July and August redrafting this story and making it a whole lot better and longer. So, as not to leave you hanging I'm giving you want I'm sure you want (I know I want it), another Rose Weasley chapter. FYI This will be the approximate length of all the chapters after I rewrite them. So without further ado.**

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"Rose!" Both twins shouted together as they crouched beside her where she was lying on the old cracking stone floor of the Restricted Section of the library. "Rose are you okay?" They chorused in panicked voices.

Rose didn't respond, she couldn't, her head was spinning so fast she could hardly see straight. The two twins looked like seven to her as they reached down to help her to her feet.

"C'mon." One of them said. "You need to see Madame Chausette."

_NO!_

"No!" Rose echoed.

The twins looked at her with confused expressions on their faces. "But Rose you're hurt." She didn't know who was talking or even what direction the voice was coming from, but the words came like a distant call, a lighthouse from the open sea.

"Come. You need to go to the hospital wing." A different voice called.

_NO!_

"No!" Rose agreed, and she threw off the hands that were holding her up. She was shaky but she was standing on her own power. "No." She said again. Her vision slowly came back to her as she spoke. "No. We were in the Restricted Section. _Restricted._" She'd gained most of her senses back by now and could finally think and see clearly again. "If we go to the hospital wing Madame Chausette will want to know what we were doing. What are we going to tell her. 'We were in the restricted section without permission, and I put on this necklace and it hurt for a second and I was dizzy afterwards.' There are no signs of anything, no lasting effects, she'll think we're lying just to get out of trouble for being in the Restricted Section." Rose knew it didn't entirely make sense, but she felt somehow that it was best not to tell anyone what they had been doing. "I think it's better if we don't tell anybody." She said expressing the thought out loud.

The twins looked at each other for a moment, concern and fear on their faces, but a moment later they submitted to her will.

"Now come on, it's late. We should get back to Ravenclaw Tower."

The boys nodded and a moment later they had put all the books back onto their shelves, by hand since Rose did not feel that she could manage any magic at this point. Then quietly so as not to arouse Madame Hill, who still had her nose in the crossword that she was evidently struggling greatly with. And without another word or sound they made their way back to their dormitories.

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The next day Rose woke up in the warm rays of the sun. It was so comfortable she was hard pressed to get out of bed. When she finally managed to get up she realized that the sun was hidden behind thick dark rain clouds. The warmth vanished however when she remembered that she had a Defence Against the Dark Arts test after lunch that she was sure to fail. She cast the thought aside, she had overslept and missed breakfast, but she absolutely _could not_ miss class.

History of magic went off without a hitch. Professor Binns gave a very informative lesson on the first Goblin War of 2100 B.C.E. Rose as was usual was the only one to take notes. Some other students had tried to pay attention - at least at first - but most people either used the period to sleep, work on papers for other classes or worst, goof off. But Professor Binns never seemed to care or even notice what they did most of the time.

Charms went off in a similar matter. Professor Smith instructed them on the proper incantation and wand movement of the levitation charm, _Wingardium Leviosa,_ which they would be practicing on feathers. Her bold orange eyes peering out from her squat face, watched over them like a hawk high on the perch of her desk, as they practiced the charm. "Swish and flick." She kept saying. By the end of the class Rose was the only one to make her feather float high into the air, and for it she earned ten points for Ravenclaw.

It wasn't until Potions class with the Slytherins that she noticed anything odd.

Unlike in her other classes, Rose did not get to choose where she sat in Potions, so she could not sit with her best friends Lorcan and Lysander. Instead, Professor Slughorn had arranged for them to sit next to the person that they were "The most dissimilar to." and Rose had been stuck sitting next to parrot, Wynona Cook.

Wynona was in her comfort zone with her sister, from whom she copied every word besides 'Yeah' which surprisingly she was able to come up with all on her own. But without her sister by her side Wynona looked like a scared puppy dog. She could communicate only through the shaking of her head, and softly whispered 'Yeah's. So Rose always ended up doing all the work. She had asked Professor Slughorn several times if she could change partners, but it time his answer was the same. "Wynona needs to learn to be her own person, and you need to learn to not get caught up on the little things in life." She had tried to argue that not talking was a pretty big thing but Professor Slughorn wouldn't hear of it. She was stuck.

She was already sitting in her seat when Wynona walked into the room with her sister Tamsyn and Rose's cousin Albus.

"Hey." Rose said automatically as Wynona put her books down on their shared desk and pulled out her chair.

"Yeah." Wynona said quietly taking her seat.

After a moment of awkward silence Professor Slughorn waddled into the room. His large body was barely supported by his frail bones, and he leaned heavily on his wooden cane that bowed under the pressure. His deep purple robes swirled around his ankles, and seemed to reflect gold in the light cast by the torches that hung on each wall. Everything about him seemed to give the impression of severe old age, except his eyes which were glowing with the eagerness of a young boy casting his past. "H-Hello class." He coughed.

"Hello Professor Slughorn." The class chorused, grateful that someone had broken the silence.

A warm smile slowly made it's way across the Professor's face. It was obvious when he taught that he loved his job, and that made the classroom a fun environment even if they did dislike their partners. "Will everyone please turn to page... uh..." He looked down at his notes. "Ah yes. Page 27 please. Today we will be learning to brew the Wiggenweld Potion. Now," he paused for a moment. "The brewing of this potion is quite the laborious task, 'Such is the nature of potion making.' I guess you could say. But nevertheless I want you _all_ working in pairs on this." There was a general groan from the class that came from all sides. "Now, now. No complaining. I would like us to finish this in an hour, so get started. You will find all the ingredients you need in the pantry." Professor Slughorn said as he gestured toward the large white pantry at the back of the room. The first pair to finish will be awarded 50 House Points, each."

Rose ran quickly toward the pantry and was the second to arrive, but the boy who was in front of her forgot his book and had to run back. She had her book in her hands but seemed to know what to get without even glancing at it. One pint of Horklumpjuice, Flobberworn Mucus, Billywig Sting slime, Boom Berry Juice, A sprig of Mint, Honeywater, Sloth Brain Mucus, Seven Chizpurfle Fangs, Ten Lionfish Spines, Unicorn Hair, Wolfsbane, Salamander Blood, Moondew, and One Stewed Mandrake. As she found each ingredient she handed them to Wynona who had followed closely behind her, until she could carry no more and Rose had to carry the rest of the ingredients herself.

Once they had all of their ingredients laid on the desk Rose whipped out her wand and cast a fire starting spell beneath the cauldron. And suddenly Rose knew what to do without consulting the book at all. She poured the Horklumpjuice in the cauldron and once it started to boil she added the Billywig Sting slime, she didn't take a measurement but she knew she had added the right amount. She stirred the potion counter clockwise with a stirring stick and suddenly the murky brown of the potion turned bright blue. A warmth was building in her chest, but Rose attributed it to excitement. Next she added six of the seven Chizpurfle Fangs, and used the seventh to stir the potion before dropping it in too and the potion turned a lighter blue, almost like the sky on a perfectly clear day. Next she dropped in the Stewed Mandrak along with a dash of Salamander Blood, and the potion turned an emerald green. Now a sprig of mint, and the Boom Berry Juice and the potion changed to a turquoise colour. This time rose added an eighth of a cup of the Salamander blood and stirred the potion until it turned a deep forest green. After each ingredient she added the warmth in her chest spread through her, making its way out to her fingertips and down to her toes.

There was a commotion somewhere on the far side of the room, but Rose wasn't listening, she was now furiously stirring her potion. By now the warmth had spread all the way through Rose's body but she no longer cared, she was too focused on her potion.

A moment later after added the final ingredient - more of the Salamander blood - and stirring the potion until it turned from bubblegum pink to a deep emerald, Rose's hand shot into the air and she called out, "We did it!" Into the silent room. And slowly Professor Slughorn lumbered toward them to check their potion. He took a spider out of a jar and cast a sleeping charm on it, then after taking a phial of the Wiggenweld potion poured a drop onto the spider who sprung back to life.

"So you have, so you have." Professor Slughorn said in a newly animated voice. "Very well done. Faster than I could have brewed it myself by far. Very good. Fifty points to Ravenclaw and Slytherin." He said beaming at her and Wynona.

* * *

She ate her lunch in great hall beside the twins. They had each had a sandwich, but neither of them had taken more than a bite, they were all far too nervous about the Defence Against the Dark Arts test they would have to take when lunch ended.

"I'm going to fail the test." Rose stated plainly. "After all my hard work trying to learn the spells, and the hours you two spent trying to help me learn them, and all the wasted time in the library, I'm going to fail." There was no emotion in her voice as she spoke, she was too nervous and too afraid to use any.

The twins had long since learned to stop trying to comfort her with expressions like "don't worry," or "what's the worst that could happen." Most of the time they only got her more wound up and nervous. So instead they sat in silence until the bell rang, signalling for most that lunch was over and it was time again for class, but to Rose It signalled the first steps of her march towards failure.

Slowly they marched up the stairs to the third floor, where Defence Against the Dark Arts was held. They were among the last to make it there, the only person to arrive after them was a small dowdy looking girl with glasses far too big for her face, who stumbled as much as she walked into the room.

All of the chairs and desks had been removed and in their place a large stage spanned almost the entire length of the long classroom.

"Alright." Came the squeaky voice of Professor Flitwick as he made his way to the group of students who were standing on the other side of the room. He was mostly bald and had a long bushy beard which was white as snow. He was smiling broadly, but that only made Rose less confident.

"As you know," Flitwick continued, "today I will be test you on your disarming spells. I will also be instructing you on the proper way to duel. As some of you know I was a Dueling champion in my youth, so this is something I have been looking forward to since the start of term."

The professor beamed at them all, but again it only made Rose more nervous. She was going to fail, she knew it.

"Now, I will be calling you up two at a time. You will stand at opposite ends of the stage. You will bow to each other." He demonstrated how to bow. "Then you will draw your wands, assume your position, and on my mark you will begin." With each sentence Flitwick said Rose became more and more afraid._ "Remember."_ Flitwick spoke much louder now. "We aim to_ disarm only_. Should any of you break this rule, I will take 100 points from your house and you will be spending a month of detentions with me. We do not want anyone to get hurt." He relaxed his face and pulled a roll of parchment from his robes. "First will be Scamander, Lorcan and Carmine, Amanda."

The two students took their places on either end of the long stage, bowed to each other and then took up fight positions. "Ready?" Flitwick asked in a loud voice. Both students gave him a curt nod, then he said, "Begin."

_"Expelliarmus!"_ Lorcan said as he pointed his what at Amanda Carmine. She moved to dodge the spell and the jet of red light whizzed right past her long wavy blonde hair.

_"Expelliarmus!"_ She called back at her spell was more well aimed, and it hit Lorcan in the shoulder.

Professor Flitwick called an end to the duel and declared, "Ms. Carmine is the winner."

There was a round of applause from everyone but Rose who did not move.

"Next will be Dorner, Felix and Weasley," Rose heart stopped.

"Molly."

Relief overtook Rose like a tidal wave, she was so glad it was not her name that was called.

The dowdy looking girl from earlier too her place on the stage in front of Rose and gave her a wave and a smile. Rose returned them both feebly. She had forgotten that she had Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors, but more shockingly she hadn't noticed that it was her cousin Molly who had stumbled into the classroom behind her.

"Ready? Begin." Flitwick said.

_"Joyeras!_" Molly cried before Felix had had a chance to move. The spell left Felix collapsed onto the ground in a terrible fit of laughter.

"Ms. Weasley is the winner."

There was more applause as Molly stepped down off the stage. Professor Flitwick cast a counter jinx on Felix and he returned to his normal self a moment later.

More students were called upon, and there were shouts of _"Expelliarmus"_, and_ "Petrificus Totalus"_ and other spells echoing off of the stone walls high into the fifty foot ceiling. Then Suddenly there were only two left.

"Weasley, Rose," Flitwick began. "And Scamander, Lysander."

Rose could feel her heart pounding in her throat as she walked to the far end of the stage. Of all the people to fight, she thought.

She stared at her best friend who was standing at the other end of the long stage with his wand held loosely in his hand. His hair was a perfect platinum blonde bowl shape around his head, and his eyes staring back into hers were a dull grey, like a storm cloud.

"Ready?" Professor Flitwick asked them. Lysander nodded and took aim with his wand but Rose did not move. "Are you ready Ms. Weasley?" Flitwick asked her.

"Yes." She choked.

"Alright then. Begin."

_"Expelliarmus!"_ Lysander roared and a jet of red light narrowly missed Rose who still did not move. _"Petrificus Totalus!"_ Lysander shouted.

_Duck!_

Rose ducked and the spell missed.

_"Petrificus Totalus!"_ Lysander shouted again.

_Left!_

Rose moved left and again the spell missed. She was beginning to feel warm again now, more confident.

_"Stupefy!"_ Lysander roared, much louder than anything before.

_Protego!_

Rose moved her wand through the air and said _"Protego!"_ The shield charm formed a solid barrier around her and Lysander's spell bounced back and caught him full in the chest.

"Ms. Weasley wins." Flitwick declared and there was applause from everyone.

* * *

**AN: To anyone who hasn't figured it out, yes the events of this chapter take place on the same day as the events of chapter 7. While this may confuse some people I think it was the best choice to tell the story this way, In a balanced way, instead of strictly chronological.**

**So please, take a second a leave a review because it will likely be your last chance until September.**


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